Pitch Letter to the Mayor of Littleton
Good Morning Mayor Schlachter,
I am a Littleton resident writing to encourage you to consider looking into the benefits of the City of Littleton developing a 10-cent bag tax. I urge you to add the said initiative to the 2022 - 2023 City Council Work Plan Dashboard, under the Environmental Stewardship goal. I hope we can meet briefly at some point between March 11th – 18th, before I go back to college.
As a Colorado native, I grew up learning to love the environment that was provided to me and I want to make sure that we sustain the said environment for generations to come. According to Plastic Bags | Littleton CO each citizen within the city uses more than 300 single-use plastic bags a year, totaling around 12 million single-use plastic bags annually being used in Littleton.
We Coloradans take pride in being environmentally friendly and cherishing the phenomenal location that they live in - the sweeping Rocky Mountains, multi-colored sunrises/sunsets, rivers, lakes, and so much more. But the reality is that plastic is polluting the Colorado environment as everyday items such as plastic bags end up invading the environment. Within The City of Littleton, the South Platte River is suffering tremendously. Currently, Colorado officials have deemed the South Platte River water as inhabitable for the community. This results in costly clean-up, paid for by funds that could be going towards education, infrastructure repair, and so much more. To solve this problem the city needs strong leadership, which I believe that you both can provide through your advocacy for limiting the amount of plastic bags used in the residents’ everyday lives. Here is an example of how it could work:
● By implementing a plastic bag tax, the city would be able to significantly reduce the amount of plastic circulating within the community.
● The plastic bag tax would apply to all businesses within The City of Littleton - the only exception being people on welfare and food stamps.
● The tax would be 10 cents per bag, with 40% of the revenue going back to the business that is providing the plastic bag, and 60% going to the city. This is modeled after The City of Denver’s bag tax.
● The money generated could be used to hand out free reusable bags, as well as other reusable and sustainable items, along with providing money for environmental clean-up. Said reusable bags could be handed out to the community at prominent events such as the Littleton Stride or during Western Welcome Week events.
● The 10 cent bag tax would incentivize the city’s residents to reduce their use of plastic and provide them with the resources to do so.
We as a community cannot continue to let the environment suffer and damage it further and further beyond repair. The ecosystem within the South Platte River is in grave danger, and we have the power to improve the state of the river before it is too late. We as a community are already feeling the impact of the damage done. A stark example of this would be over the summer of 2021 when E. coli bacteria broke out into the city's water. According to the Denver Post, E. Coli contamination (within the South Platte River area) is at levels up to 137 times higher than the federal safety limit. Regulation of the environment around the Platte would provide a lower contamination rate of the water, improving the safety of the city.
I implore you both to consider the benefit that this would have for our community. I would love to meet with you to discuss the work the Council is doing around the environment, and discuss how a 10 cent bag tax would benefit the community. If you are open to meeting with me, I am available from March 11th – March 18th, over the phone or in person. Let me know if that would work for you.
I very much hope we can get together over the next 2 weeks, look forward to hearing back from you.
All the best,
Addi Vander Velde
720-753-8570.
