{"id":5579,"date":"2010-05-13T10:05:16","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T17:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blitransfer.wpengine.com\/?p=5579"},"modified":"2017-06-21T14:21:37","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T19:21:37","slug":"concord-ma-residents-ban-bottled-water-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/2010\/05\/13\/concord-ma-residents-ban-bottled-water-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Concord, MA Residents Ban Bottled Water Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you live in Concord, Massachusetts or will be traveling there, be sure to bring your own\u00a0reusable water bottle<\/a>. \u00a0Starting January 1, 2011, the sale of bottled water will be banned within city limits. \u00a0Concord is the first city in America to completely outlaw bottled water, and the bottled water industry<\/a> is not happy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Photo by Klearchos Kapoutsis<\/a>\"Concord,<\/a>
Concord, MA bans bottled water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bottled water<\/a> has seen its popularity rise and fall, as environmentalists have educated consumers that tap water is safe, and plastic water bottles are creating a waste nightmare. \u00a0Many other cities have cut down on government consumption of bottled water, but thanks to citizen action, Concord will be the first city to be completely bottled water free! \u00a0AOL New<\/a>s explains:<\/p>\n

The move is a victory for 82-year-old activist and Concord resident Jean Hill, who spearheaded the effort to ban the plastic bottles. She presented the Town Council with a slide show featuring photos of plastic polluting the ocean and mounting in garbage dumps.<\/p>\n

“All these discarded bottles are damaging our planet, causing clumps of garbage in the oceans that hurt fish, and are creating more pollution on our streets,” Hill\u00a0told the Boston Globe<\/a>. “This is a great achievement to be the first in the country to do this. This is about addressing an injustice.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, the Concord bottled water ban will most likely be legally challenged by the bottled water industry. \u00a0It is questionable as to whether the Town Council has the authority to outlaw a consumer product.<\/p>\n

The International Bottled Water Association<\/a> responded to the ban by stating:<\/p>\n

Bottled water is a safe, healthy, convenient food product.\u00a0With the current high rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease, any actions that discourage or prevent consumers from drinking water –whether tap or bottled — are not in the public interest.<\/p>\n

Bottled water is one of thousands of food, medicinal, beauty and cleaning products packaged in plastic.\u00a0Any efforts to reduce the environmental impact of consumer packaging must focus comprehensively all product containers and not single out any one product.\u00a0According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, bottled water makes up 1\/3 of one percent of the U.S. waste stream.\u00a0\u00a0 Plastic bottled water containers are the single most recycled item with a rate of 30.9%.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0Concord Journal<\/em> newspaper, town officials and the town\u2019s counsel have stated publicly that the town does not have the power to enact such a ban. IBWA is reviewing all possible remedies, including a legal challenge.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Concord ban in no way discourages people from drinking water. \u00a0It simply encourages residents to use reusable bottles and drinking fountains. \u00a0People managed to consume enough water to maintain proper health before bottled water became popular, and they did so without the risk of exposure to dangerous chemicals in plastic bottles<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you live in Concord, Massachusetts or will be traveling there, be sure to bring your own\u00a0reusable water bottle. \u00a0Starting January 1, 2011, the sale of bottled water will be banned within city limits. \u00a0Concord is the first city in America to completely outlaw bottled water, and the bottled water industry is not happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[2854,2647,268,446,957,1092,1331],"yst_prominent_words":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/bottled-water.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5579"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=5579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}