Plastic Free Breckenridge
Breckenridge, CO is ubiquitous with pristine snow-covered peaks and long seasons of alpine activities, soon though it will lead the state of CO and the Rocky Mountain West in a divergence from plastic bottled water. Starting July 1st, 2024 Breckenridge Colorado will be the next municipality following San Francisco, CA and Cape Cod, MA to ban single-use plastic bottled water.
The ban comes after the Town Council passed an ordinance in March of 2023 to begin phasing out certain single-use plastic items. This ordinance is driven in part by the Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, an act that in part allows the state of Colorado to ban these plastics- something that previous to the act the state was prohibited from.
Travel and tourism contribute to the plastic and waste epidemic at rates exceedingly high, one study shows that on average we produce over 10lbs of waste while traveling. Breckenridge is no exception, for an area welcoming of visitors and winter activities welcoming over 1.5 million visitors to ski each year. Read as 15,000,000lbs of waste generated in a single ski-season, much of these single-use plastic materials may take over 400 years to decompose in a landfill.
Breckenridge Sustainability and Parking Manager, Jessir Burley mentioned “This is a behavior-change campaign, and so there’s both an educational aspect, which takes a little bit of time and copy within the concepts to deliver, but then also a call to action,”. This type of legislation can be difficult to implement, and without the proper messaging, alternative products and local support can flounder.
At RAIN we are proud and grateful of the bold action taken in Breckenridge Colorado a demonstration that with the proper leadership and deliberate effort to address big issues like plastic waste small towns like Breckenridge can have a meaningful impact. Like Breckenridge, RAIN has decided alternatives to plastic should be made available to all, by bottling our spring water in only plastic-free aluminum packaging, products that are Better For You and Better For The Planet.