Joe Heller,

Paper or plastic?

Re: “Denver’s bag fee is just the beginning,” Dec. 14 news story

I’m confused! The Denver City Council wants to charge a fee for “single-use” plastic, paper bags, to diminish their environmental footprint. That’s a good thing! But why charge this same fee ($0.10 per bag) for either bag? I’ll explain.

Plastic bags take 40% less energy to make than paper ones. Paper bags production kills trees, contributes to harmful acid rain, releases deadly dioxin and pollutes water.

It takes about seven trucks carrying paper bags to equal just one truck carrying the same amount of plastic ones.

On a pound-for-pound basis, it takes more than 50 times the energy to recycle paper than it does plastic. Knowing the above information, why should this fee be just $0.10 for a paper bag?

Considering the cradle to grave pollution profile, the Denver City Council should consider charging at least $0.25 for every paper, single-use bag. Correct?

John P. Cardie, Westminster

Here are the first words from the story. “Denver’s proposed fee for single-use bags …”

From the beginning, the story misrepresents how the bags are used. At least in my house, they are multi-use bags. We keep the bags and we use them for other purposes. Mostly we use them to line wastebaskets. We also use them for pet droppings and to carry things.

What do city council members use to line their wastebaskets? Do they buy plastic bags for that single-use? They should know that the bags they buy are thicker and therefore lead to more plastic waste. In addition, the containers they are packaged in becomes waste too. Finally, adding them to the shopping basket results in more things to be sacked and carried to the car — waste, waste, waste.

Before Denver bans grocery store bags, I would like to see a study that shows what happens to plastic bag sales after grocery store bags are banned. How much do sales of those bags go up? Does the total amount of plastic from those bags equal, or perhaps exceed the thin grocery store bags?

I’m in full agreement with the war on plastic. Replace plastic and Styrofoam where it makes sense. But don’t take away the one product that can so easily be used for multiple purposes.

David Jones, Aurora

The pending impeachment trial

Let President Donald Trump have a fair trial!

Let every witness testify. Let every document be examined.

We have a crisis in our democracy. We dare not hurry this process. We need the fullest, most transparent trial we can have. We American citizens need to satisfy ourselves fully that the verdict was not decided behind closed doors. We need to see the evidence ourselves, not filtered through the bias of whatever news source we read or listen to.

The Constitution is our most valuable public treasure. Finally, we the people need to decide whether President Trump upheld his oath to protect the Constitution. We also need to know if our elected members of Congress upheld their oaths to defend the Constitution. We can only do that if all the testimony is made public, and we see all the evidence.

Let this trial proceed slowly, thoughtfully. Ultimately, all of us are the jury.

Ken Gerdes, Denver

Re: “Impeached,” Dec. 19 news story

I, and many others, will be anxiously waiting to see if The Denver Post — in the next several weeks, in response to action in the U.S. Senate — runs a front-page banner headline which perhaps could read: “Vindicated,’’ ‘’Exonerated,’’ or “Not guilty.’’ In light of the Dec. 19 headline, wouldn’t that be a matter of accuracy and fairness? We are not holding our breath.

Curtis E. Burton, Highlands Ranch

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