I’m one of 700-plus potential customers at the canteen of Colorado State Penitentiary. The canteen, or commissary, is essentially a prison general store. Weekly purchased items arrive in industrial-strength plastic bags the size of pillowcases, no matter the volume of the order. Even my small pouch of ground coffee comes in a massive bag.
In my estimation, a few hundred plastic bags are used every week by the prison. Almost all of them are thrown away.
The U.S. produces more plastic waste than any other but recycles only 4% of it compared to 9% worldwide. Like other states, Colorado has tried to stem its reliance on plastic. On Jan. 1, 2024, the state started requiring stores to only offer carryout bags made of recycled paper, at about 10 cents a bag.
As of yet, however, the measures in prisons are limited.
To test my suspicion that most bags are tossed in the can, I asked seven sergeants who pass out canteen orders: What happens to the plastic bags after the deliveries?
They said the procedure is to collect the bags and toss them in the trash because bags without holes can be used to produce illicit alcoholic beverages. I also heard that the canteen uses transparent bags so officers can easily inspect the orders to make sure no extra items were added.
“Can the bags not be recycled?” I asked.
No sergeant provided a satisfying answer. They simply suggested that tearing and tossing them in the trash was the easiest way. Introducing a new process, like my suggestion to reuse or recycle them, would add more work, they said.
The only things recycled here are cardboard and aluminum cans, as Colorado prisons have a vendor set up to collect such items.
California, Florida, Virginia and Washington, among other states, are trying to curb plastics in their prisons. Colorado too must do more.
I’ve been trying to solve this problem for three years now. Around September 2021, I pursued a grievance around the prison’s use of plastic.
In my complaint, I proposed that CSP reuse the bags and that it establish “a point system.” One point for each bag returned. After an accumulation of so many points, a prize would be awarded. I suggested trying this as an experiment in one housing unit.
But a captain responded that reusing bags wasn’t possible for the foreseeable future because of COVID-19 precautions.
I then approached one of the people who ran our canteen to ask if we could try some kind of recycling system or forgo plastic bags. As before, I hit a dead end.
I vowed to try again once COVID quarantines were behind us.
In March 2023, I wrote to my prison’s warden, proposing the facility reuse each canteen bag or replace them with reusable ones.
The warden, Stephanie Sandoval, wrote back three days later. She thanked me for my suggestion and included a reply from a fellow state employee, prison canteen manager Darin Sillaman.
“Thank you for passing this on,” Sillaman wrote. “As with all state entities, we strive to minimize environmental impact. Currently, transitioning away from or reusing plastic bags isn’t operationally feasible. We will continue to explore opportunities to reduce environmental impact and thank you for your suggestion.”
The powers that be had spoken, but like the climate crisis, I am not going away.