PARK CITY — Park City is the first in Utah to ban plastic bags.
The city’s environmental and sustainability manager, Luke Cartin, says it’s time.
“They gum up the recycling equipment, plastic bags are a big contamination issue, they are also a litter issue in Park City as well,” he said.
This ban affects large grocery stores within city limits, so that means The Market at Park City, Rite Aid and Fresh Market.
Store managers say they feel singled out. They say they will have to charge customers for paper bags now.
The ban may extend to smaller stores eventually. Cartin says they have been working on this for years.
“After we did some analysis, we realized we couldn’t do a bag fee, it had to be a bag ban. That’s just the way Utah law is set up,” said Cartin.
The Smiths and Walmart at Kimball Junction are not in the ban, being outside of Park City limits.