DENVER — In 2023, Boulder-based recycling center Eco-Cycle estimated that Colorado used at least 1.5 billion fewer single-use plastic bags than the previous year.

While Eco-Cycle did not provide an updated estimate, they say that number is likely even higher after a statewide ban went into effect in 2024.

McCall Phoenix just left a job working for a Denver grocery store.

“Working in customer service in a grocery store, I could see there was a lot of anger towards [the ban], honestly,” Phoenix said of the plastic bag ban. “Maybe just where I worked, the paper bags weren’t great quality. So you would get a lot of people with broken bags.”

Phoenix and other shoppers are still getting used to the change and bringing reusable bags to the store to avoid paying a ten-cent fee for each paper bag.

“I never used to bring reusable bags, even a year into this,” Phoenix said. “Two months ago, I figured it out.”

Some still wonder how much the move is really helping the environment.

“I think it was a smart move,” Phoenix said of the ban. “It needed to happen eventually. But I do think part of it is for show, for sure.”

Eco-Cycle doesn’t see it that way. They say the program is already showing real progress.

“Since the bag ban has passed, the town of Breckenridge reports having almost no plastic bags in their litter cleanup,” Eco-Cycle Senior Policy & Research Associate Rachel Setzke told Denver7.

In the long term, Eco-Cycle expects to see more of an impact as our habits change.

“As we all get more comfortable taking our reusable shopping bags to the grocery store, we probably are looking at other reusable behaviors we can do,” said Setzke. “And we see that people start taking reusable mugs to the coffee shop, or they think about, hey, do I need to get that single-use fork from the fast food place?”

This past year also marked a statewide ban on polystyrene — or styrofoam — takeout containers.

Local governments can now impose even more limits on single-use plastics. Breckenridge already banned businesses from selling single-use plastic water bottles that are less than one gallon.

Colorado marks one year since single-use plastic shopping bag ban