By Julia Caulfield
Frequent local restaurants and businesses in Telluride and you may notice something missing. Single use plastic.
“Mainly what’s changing is related to food service and things related to food service. But it’s not solely that,” says Darin Graber, Sustainability and Grant Administrator for the Town of Telluride. “it also applies to somethings you might not expect, toothpicks can’t be wrapped in single use plastic, or cotton swabs with plastic stems are prohibited under this ordinance.”
In 2022, Telluride Town Council passed an ordinance to ban single use plastic in the town, with the implementation date of July 1, 2024.
Under the ordinance, single use plastic containers are prohibited (such as Styrofoam, cups, bowls, plates), plastic straws and cutlery are a no go, same with condiments, and plastic stirrers or garnish spears. Single use plastic water bottles under a gallon are prohibited. In addition, customers at a restaurant or business must request cutlery or napkins, rather than getting them automatically.
There are exceptions for fire, EMS, and law enforcement if they need single use plastic in an emergency situation, or in the case of a town wide emergency or natural disaster. Single use plastic will also be allowed for medical use.
You may also still see single use plastic at the grocery store as prepackaged items that come from large distributers, or if it has to do with food safety.
“So obviously we’re going to have milk cartons, or a plastic bottle of milk. The things we need to change are the items that we’re serving over the counter. If I have a raw ingredient in my hand and I need to put it in something to give to a customer, that receptacle needs to be compostable,” notes Chris Jackman, Store Director at the Clark’s Market in Telluride.
Jackson says there have been a number of changes at the store since the ban went into effect, but he’s up for the task.
“It does seem a little daunting at the beginning especially when you start making a list of all the things that need to be changed over,” he says, “but there are a lot of suppliers that provide those items.”
The main challenge, Jackman says, is getting vendors to stock the items specific for Telluride.
“Because they service a larger community. They’re servicing Telluride, and Norwood, and Ridgway, and Montrose, and Grand Junction. So to have these niche items for Telluride can be difficult, but I haven’t talked to anyone who is not supportive of it,” he says.
Jackman adds with a higher demand on eco products he anticipates running into supply chain issues, with certain products being out of stock.
Despite shifts or any potential challenges for the Market, Jackman says he’s supportive of the ban.
“To have such a small community like Telluride be a role model for the rest of Colorado and the rest of the United States is a great move for us,” he muses.
Scott Keating is the part-owner of the Coffee Cowboy, a to-go coffee shop in Telluride (photo credit Julia Caulfield/KOTO)
But not everyone is fully sold.
“Our business is a to-go business, and we’ve been using compostable cups since we bought it in 2020,” says Scott Keating is part-owner of the Coffee Cowboy. “So for our to-go cup scene, nothing has changed.”
Keating’s not against compostable cups. As he said, the Coffee Cowboy has been using them since the beginning, but he’s skeptical of the benefit to the environment.
For the compostable cups to properly break down, it requires an industrial composting process, something the Telluride region is working towards, but doesn’t have readably available.
Some research has shown that compostable material still takes years and years to break down in a landfill, and as they do, they can emit the greenhouse gas methane.
“It’s great in theory, if we’re actually composting it,” Keating says “But to put all that energy in to something that’s actually worse for the environment, it doesn’t make sense. At the end of the day I feel like we’re greenwashing to make ourselves feel better.”
That’s not to say he’s against the ordinance, but he wants to see the conversation go further.
“This is a great first step. I’m not trying to sh*t on it,” Keating says, “I’m trying to be a realist of if we want to think of wide scale problems and think it through, let’s not do it 20%. Let’s really think about them.”
For Keating, it’s about a culture shift. To that point, Graber agrees.
“Trying to really push toward a different mindset of refuse, reuse, then think about recycling, then think about everything else,” says Graber. “Shifting people’s habits might seem like a big deal, but I think in a year or two it’ll be so normal, and we can push to a much more sustainable lifestyle than the consumption based lifestyle we have nationally.”
A national culture shift to zero waste may be a big goal, but Telluride is trying to do its part. One cup at a time.