If you’re thinking about stopping by Concord, Mass., you’ll want to bring your own reusable bottle. The historic town, which is the birthplace of the Revolutionary War and the home of famous thinker Henry David Thoreau, has a ban the ubiquitous water receptacle.
In Jan. 2013, Concord became the first city in the nation to ban this plastic menace, a charge led by octogenarian Jean Hill and her activist partner Jill Appel.
A documentary of the battle, “Divide in Concord,” premiered in July. Proponents of the ban wanted to curb waste and fossil fuel use. According to the Ban the Bottle website, “Americans used about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year. However, the U.S.’s recycling rate for plastic is only 23 percent, which means 38 billion water bottles – more than $1 billion worth of plastic – are wasted each year.”
Meanwhile, opponents (led by Adriana Cohen, a political commentator) called the ban an intrusion on corporate interests as well as “an attack on freedom,” EcoWatch notes.
MORE: 37 Ways to Shrink Your Use of Plastic
“You have this supremely educated base of people that are focused on ideals. People know their facts. People were only speaking if they knew what they were talking about, which was refreshing. The overall debate would come down to free commerce versus the environment,” documentary director Kris Kaczor says in an interview. “Basically the rights of corporations to make a profit, and for a populous to be able to choose a product that is legal and safe, versus banning a product completely in service of the environment.”
After a campaign that lasted three years, the bottle ban activists won. It now states in section 1 of the city’s water bottle ban bylaws, “It shall be unlawful to sell non-sparkling, unflavored drinking water in single-serving polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles of 1 liter (34 ounces) or less in the Town of Concord on or after January 1, 2013.” Violators of the ban will first receive a warning, a second offense results in a $25 fine, third and following offenses result in a $50 fine per violation.
The debate is still raging and you can read comments surrounding the issue here. For instance, one dissenter of the ban wrote, “I have found, as a resident of Concord, that if I’m out and I or my children want a drink, the only options are sugary drinks!”
DON’T MISS: This Coalition is Confronting a Big Problem with Music Festivals
Still, more and more parts of the country are waking up to the unsustainable reality of plastic use. San Francisco recently followed in Concord’s path becoming the first major American city to ban plastic bottles, and other activists have been inspired to bring the ban to their own towns. (That’s not to mention all the cities and states banning the plastic bottle’s pesky cousin: plastic bags.)
Change, slowly but surely, can be made. As Kaczor says about his documentary’s leading lady, “At our current state in history, people are becoming pretty apathetic and pessimistic about our ability to change, and this is a true example of how one person can make a difference, potentially and ultimately at a global level.”
Tag: water bottles
This Coalition is Confronting a Big Problem with Music Festivals
Stick around to the end of a music festival or concert, and the grounds can look like a graveyard of disposable cups and discarded plastic bottles. While it’s not unusual for a concert-goer to go through a few bottles of water or other beverages while enjoying some music, when the party’s over, this plastic pollution seriously adds up.
That’s why, as Rolling Stone reports, the Plastic Pollution Coalition (that’s made up of individuals and institutions dedicated to eliminating plastic waste on a global scale) have made it a mission to stamp out this environmentally harmful, single-use item at concerts.
The coalition’s project, Plastic Free Touring, advises artists such as Jackson Browne, Ben Harper and Crosby, Stills and Nash to reduce their plastic footprint while on the road. The coalition also partnered with this year’s Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, where revelers could purchase stainless steel water bottles and beer cups (and receive a $1 discount for every subsequent beer purchase), which could be used to stay hydrated with free water refill sites.
MORE: Here’s How Colleges Are Leading the Green Revolution in Sports
Dianna Cohen, eco-activist and Plastic Pollution Coalition co-founder, tells Rolling Stone that she wants to expand this plastic-free initiative outside of the music arena. “This can be extended to sporting venues and schools,” she says. “I’d also like to see venues offer more people options of producing beverages from kegs, large containers and soda fountains.”
She adds that she has a larger goal to wipe out humanity’s plastic bottle habit for good. “Millions and millions of bottles are sold every minute,” she says. (About 2.4 million tons is discarded annually, with 75 percent going straight to the landfill.) “It’s insane, just collective madness.”
Besides the plastic carnage, concerts (and just about any other event that attracts large crowds) use up a lot of other resources — from the countless fliers that get handed out to the amount of carbon that is emitted when people travel to shows.
However, more and more artists and bands such as Radiohead, Drake, Phish, and The Roots are embracing sustainability, utilizing biodiesel tour buses and compostable catering. Large gatherings are opportune moments for musicians and concert organizers to be role models in sustainability. After all, why can’t concerts be fun and work towards the greater good at the same time?
DON’T MISS: 37 Ways to Shrink Your Use of Plastic
If You’re Going to San Francisco, Here’s Why You Might Need to Bring Your Own Water Bottle
The city by the bay is definitely an eco-trendsetter. After all, it was the first to institute a ban on plastic bags way back in 2007. (Several other cities and an entire state later followed suit.) It also diverts everything from recyclables to compostables and even unwanted clothes from landfills. And now, it might prohibit the disposable plastic water bottle as well.
The easy-to-transport drinking vessel is currently on the endangered species list in San Francisco. The city’s Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a measure that would ban the sale of plastic water bottles 21 ounces or smaller at events held on city property. If approved a second time by the board and the city’s mayor, the ban would go into effect starting on October 1 for indoor events and in 2016 for outdoor events, SFGate reports.
“We all know with climate change, and the importance of combating climate change, San Francisco has been leading the way to fight for our environment. That’s why I ask you to support this ordinance to reduce and discourage single-use, single-serving plastic water bottles in San Francisco,” said City Supervisor David Chiu, the author of the ordinance. “I want to remind people that not long ago, our world was not addicted to plastic water bottles. Before (the 1990s), for centuries, everybody managed to stay hydrated.”
MORE: Can Rain Solve West Virginia’s Tap Water Problem?
Could your city be next to take on this bottled environmental scourge?