Mass. Town Bans Bottled Water; Cats Still Free to Roam

Jeffrey Klineman|April 26, 2012 3:26 pm

They managed to hold it off last year — partially due to an impassioned plea from resident and longtime beverage entrepreneur Tom First — but that quirky town of Concord, Mass., finally passed a ban on the sale of single-serving plastic water bottles at its Town Meeting last night.

It was the fourth year in a row the town has voted on some form of bottled water ban or another — the one that passed last night (403 to 364, if you’re counting) would make it a $50 fine for any merchant to sell a bottle of water of one liter or less.

The bill doesn’t go into effect until Jan. 1 — and that’s pending approval of the state Attorney General, but for now bottled water opponents claim they have passed a first-in-the-nation municipal law.

Another potentially groundbreaking Concord regulation — one forcing cats to be kept on leashes while outside — was not voted on due to the length of the bottled water debate.

Jeff

As if the bottled water ban wasn’t already bad enough, the cat law would’ve been a
cat-astrophe!
Jpratt

These votes and regulations have me purrrrplexed
Anonymous

Well this is a winner of an idea… so now it is illegal to sell a single serving of the most healthy beverage in the world…water; Brilliant!… so instead, let’s all stop in for a single serving of sugar… uh, I mean coke.
Backpagedriver

Someone needs to write a litter of two to the people responsible
Don “Dr Soda” Rubenstein

wow…..so what do they call government that tells it’s citizens that they can not make their own decision about. if a consumer chooses not to purchase a bottle of water, then that is a consumers right to purchase or not to purchase. but government taking the right to make a desision away from it’s citizens, then that is not a democratic process.

so what will be next in concord? bread will be handed out on wednesdays……and monday will be shoe day?

wow…simply wow.
Jeremy

So bottled water sales go down in small bottles and soda sells go up. What has been gained.
Still have a plastic bottle used and someone drinking an unhealthy beverage rather then the healthiest beverage water.
Anonymous

“Are you kitten me right meow???”
http://profile.yahoo.com/5VZMH7COOJ42ORMYX2CTCYRXDQ RobbVann

You can see why we left Massachusetts years ago. The state has a strict deposit system so I don’t know what their motivation is!
http://twitter.com/somenerd somenerd

I bet trying to make sense of those mass debaters was like trying to herd cats.
http://www.taylorstonics.com Taylor

FURRRther more…
TW

these are the same people who don’t want you to drink soda. so, now, you won’t be able to buy a single-serve bottle of water, but you’ll be able to buy a 12 oz can of coke. Geniuses, they are not!
MrPurpleman

I live there and the reason we have to ban bottled water is that when we waste that money; it is not spent on garden hoses which is the only thing we produce. The cat leash law is necessay, because our restaurants sometimes have long waits for food if they need to catch your cat before making you a cat and fish sandwich.
Richfon

The residents who voted no should have expensive filtration systems put in their homes and bill it to the city
Ocean spray paint

Mass holes
Blah

Jesus Christ… Worthless news like this is the reason I drink.
Vwilliams

They should ban Nantucket Nectars and Purity Organis as well. OOPs – Tom First owns them.
Joe

IS concord sleeping with soda companies or are they just stupid?
Dewboy2k

I’m a Massachusetts resident, and it’s stuff like this that makes me hang my head in shame! LOL! I wasn’t even aware of the cat-leash issue until reading the above article. I’m thinking of visiting Concord with a truck full of empty plastic water bottles and a few pallets of stray cats…
Epay2

Its happening across the country and eventually will be banned in govt buildings. National Parks have banned plastic bottles altogether Coke tried to stop the movement but failed. College campus across the country have also banned PET bottles.
Kirbynutz

These people have to be kidding me! What has America become? Remember the good old days when we ignored the Inviorment for money like Americans?

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Mass. Town Bans Bottled Water; Cats Still Free to Roam

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