The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Important to engage local businesses first
By Mark Reaman
Before taking any significant action in terms of regulating single use plastic in Crested Butte, the town council wants to reach out and have deep conversations with local businesses about how best to do it.
During a one-hour work session on the topic held November 3, town sustainability coordinator Dannah Leeman Gore said she was seeking direction from the council on whether reducing single use plastic and increasing composting in town was a council priority for 2026. She said looking at towns like Breckenridge and Telluride, banning some single use plastic and encouraging things like compostable utensils works but they have composting infrastructure in place to handle the move while Crested Butte does not.
Leeman Gore said one benefit of moving in the direction of regulating single use plastic and encouraging things like compostable coffee cups in town is that it should help reduce overflowing trash on Elk Avenue in the summer. That could reduce trash pick-up costs in the busy summer months. She told the council that Waste Management has reported anecdotally that single-use coffee cups and ice cream cups make up most of the Elk Avenue trash. She said given last summer’s trash situation, the town should expect to pay another $8,000 to manage the so-called Big Belly trash receptacles on Elk.
“Trash in the summer is a community focus,” said councilmember Beth Goldstone. “I want to know if a significant increase in composting could be handled by Elements Mountain Compost that currently handles town composting. Waste reduction initiatives is a first priority for me as a reason to explore this.”
“Reading the survey comments, I agree that construction waste and hotel and short-term rental amenities have a lot of single use plastic. It’s not just restaurants,” said councilmember Anna Fenerty. “I want a robust understanding of plastic use in town before making major moves like implementing a ban or fees.
“Reducing Waste Management costs is a good priority,” continued Fenerty. “Rwanda has a program where the last Saturday of every month citizens must get together to clean up trash. It wouldn’t be mandatory here of course but it’s a chance for residents to take some ownership of some of the trash that is located all over town and not just on Elk Avenue. Maybe we have a program where citizens can bring in five pounds of trash and get five dollars off their water bill. Can we loop in Western students to help analyze the situation?”
Mayor Ian Billick asked about the feasibility of placing composting bins in local businesses that do a lot of take-out business. “That might help in high-use places like coffee shops,” he said.
“You would need sizable buy-in from the restaurants,” said Fenerty.
“The staff seems to be wanting to get out to businesses and understand the situation and that makes sense to me before taking any action,” said Billick. “Having one-on-one conversations with businesses to see how we can help them would be beneficial.”
“I agree and don’t want to just put a new burden on restaurants that are already struggling,” said councilmember John O’Neal.
“This is a bad time to add costs and headaches since tariffs will likely really start hitting business in December. It’s better to provide incentives to help,” said Billick. “Business owners I’ve talked to are already trying to figure it out.”
“Composting and recycling is a big part of how we live on this earth, but I don’t want it to be too costly,” said councilmember Gabi Prochaska.
Billick said he would be interested in what results meant for town. “Does taking certain action solve 1% of the problem or 50%? I’ve struggled with the larger context. Does it really matter?”
The council also discussed focusing on banning single use water bottles smaller than one-gallon sized containers. Billick suggested the town could first do a better job with providing places for people to fill up reusable water bottles throughout town. Town manager Dara MacDonald said such water stations are located at public restrooms.
Responding to council questions, Leeman Gore said town had the authority to ban such plastic water bottles even at large events in town. Goldstone and Prochaska immediately supported exploring that option.
“I would think banning single use plastic water bottles and providing more water refill stations are intertwined,” said Prochaska.
Goldstone noted big companies facing such a ban would probably switch providing bottles from plastic to aluminum which is recyclable.
The council leaned toward implementing a ban on such water bottles on events held on town property such as weddings at the Town Ranch. However, they wanted to touch base with significant renters of town property like the Center for the Arts and CB Nordic about the impacts of such a ban on their properties.
“We can talk to them about what support they might need,” said MacDonald. She said for special events the town can make the rules and require things like a single use plastic ban or requirement for compostable utensils.
Basically, the council did not choose to take any quick action on the issue but was interested in exploring ways to reduce single use plastics in town. The emphasis at the work session was to first delve into deep conversations with local businesses and nonprofits to find the best ways to address the plastics issues in town.
