Council committee advances ordinance to expand uses of Denver's disposable bag fee, clearing budget transfer

Denver ' The Transportation & Infrastructure Committee advanced an ordinance on Dec. 3 to broaden how the city may spend revenue from the disposable bag fee, and to enable a budgeted transfer of up to $4.7 million to the volume-based pricing fund that supports citywide composting and recycling.

The measure passed a committee roll call, 4-1, after roughly two hours of questions focused on whether the proposed language'particularly the phrase "and related activities" followed by "which may include"'was too broad and risked diverting funds from the program's original administration, education and reusable-bag work. Chair Chantal M. Lewis cast the lone no vote; the motion to advance was made by Councilmember Paul Cashman and carried.

Jonathan Wachtell, deputy executive director for the Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency (CASR), told the committee the bag fee was created in 2021 as a 10-cent charge at retail checkout, with 60 percent remitted to the city and 40 percent retained by businesses to defray administrative costs. "We've seen a 50% reduction in the total disposable bags being used in the city of County, Denver," Wachtell said, adding…