More rules on single-use items in the works for CB, Mt. CB
A large grant from the state energy office will help Gunnison County phase out the use of fossil fuels and assist the Town of Crested Butte in its fight against single-use plastics.
The Colorado Energy Office announced on June 18 that $2,040,000 had been awarded to the Town of Crested Butte, the Town of Mt. Crested Butte, and Gunnison County through the state’s Local IMPACT Accelerator grant program, which funnels federal EPA Climate Pollution Reduction Grants funds to Colorado local governments. The state energy office granted projects to more than 30 entities in this round of funding, and the award to the Gunnison Valley cohort was among the largest.
The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants is a $5 billion program created under the Inflation Reduction Act, an $891 billion spending law signed into law by President Biden in 2022. The law was aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the federal deficit and inflation, and was part of Biden’s Build Back Better Plan.
The majority of the funds awarded to the Gunnison Valley will go toward electrification. According to a memo shared with county commissioners by County Energy Program Manager Gesa Michel, $1.3 million will pay for energy efficiency and electrification rebates, $250,000 will pay for administration, $200,000 will be used to train energy efficiency experts. The remainder, $210,000, has been earmarked for “waste policy development,” according to Michel’s memo.
The state energy office announced that the towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte will use the funds to “implement jurisdiction-wide single-use plastic prohibition policies and expand building rebates and workforce development programs.”
Michel explained to county commissioners on June 23 that the North Valley towns must achieve their waste goals in order for the County to “unlock” the funds related to electrification. The County expects that the grant will mainly be spent over the course of 2 ½ years, starting in January 2027.
County staff decided against joining forces with the towns on their proposed plastics bans in the grant application. John Cattles, Assistant County Manager for Operations and Sustainability, told commissioners “Their (the towns’) waste policy that they are trying to implement is an elimination of single-use plastics. We felt like that was a bit much for the county to get into, and so we opted out of that. But the energy office still let the county be a collaborator on electrification.” Electrification of buildings, Cattles explained, is listed as one of the most beneficial actions in the county’s climate action policy.
The grant boosts the Town of Crested Butte’s initiatives around reducing plastics pollution. This spring, the Town began requiring special event holders to use “reusable, recyclable, or compostable containers and dishware”, to serve condiments in bulk, to have recycling and composting waste containers available, and prohibited event organizers from selling disposable plastic water bottles.
To help event organizers comply with these policies, the Town of Crested Butte is selling cups, plates, and utensils that it bought in bulk for the program. These items are on offer for half the cost of “current market pricing,” according to the Town’s website, though its plastic reduction policy guide also notes that two local event companies rent reusable dishware.
The Town of Crested Butte has made plastics reduction a priority, pointing to the impacts of single-use plastics on the volume of trash collected on Elk Avenue in summer months, and Town Sustainability Coordinator Dannah Leeman Gore noted that single-use plastics contribute to watershed pollution in a January meeting she convened with North Valley nonprofits on the subject of throw-away plastics at events.
Crested Butte Town Council approved the plastics ban for special events on February 17, and town staff told the council that they were studying the feasibility of a “broader” ordinance covering restaurants, shops, and hotels. Since 2018, Crested Butte has banned plastic bags. A 2024 state law gave local governments greater power to enact further restrictions.
Many other towns and counties received funding for similar waste programs under the Local IMPACT Accelerator grants, including neighboring Chaffee County, which received $1.2 million to “mandate construction and demolition material diversion.”