Would you spend $50 for a ‘vintage’ plastic bag?
DENVER (KDVR) — Plastic bags are out in Colorado several months after a law went into place that prevents grocery stores and other retailers from providing them at checkout — and one enterprising resident is trying to turn their stash into a win.
A post on Facebook Marketplace lists a “never been used” King Soopers bag for $50.
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Before you think this is a cash grab, the poster said they’ll donate the profits to a local food bank and “might even frame it for you.”
The poster said they had more than 80 responses to the listing for the “vintage” item.
Colorado’s plastic bag law started to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2023, when a 10-cent fee was applied for single-use bags at checkout. Then, at the start of 2024, stores were no longer allowed to supply single-use plastic bags beyond what they already had in stock.
Many grocery stores, including King Soopers, switched to paper bags at checkout, and customers still need to pay 10 cents per bag.
“From an environmental standpoint, the impact [of paper] is smaller. The whole purpose in Colorado is plastic bags they fly in the air and then they can end up in streams and then the plastic releases chemicals, which is bad for the rivers, estuaries and whatever. Whereas paper is more biodegradable and it’s less impactful to the environment,” Jack Buffington, a professor at the University of Denver with a PhD in industrial marketing and supply chain, said in December.
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The goal is to have customers switch to reusable bags, which carry a higher price point initially but even out after repeat uses.
“I think this law represents moral change and it’s an incremental change,” said Buffington. “If you think about going to a restaurant or going to a supermarket, you have 20 items that are in plastic containers single-use plastic containers and all you’re doing now is reducing the bag that you put them in so, you know from an environmental impact, it’s smaller, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
So, if you want to commemorate the change — or just add to the collection of plastic bags you have hanging in a closet somewhere — you can find the listing, which was still up as of 2 p.m. on April 10.
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