CONCORD – I was sipping my favorite beverage from a brown paper bag on a bench near Walden Pond one recent day when a local sidled up to me with a question. I knew he was a local because he was wearing what everyone else in this town does — a pair of frayed khakis about one rinse cycle from total disintegration and a Peter Paul & Mary concert shirt.
“Jimmy Beam?” he asked desirously, pointing to my bag.
Comments
This article reeks of Classism. McGrory appears to be irritated at the town of Concord simply because Concord is a wealthy town and can afford to worry about our environment. It is not what is in the bottles which is, indeed, a scam, but the bottles. They are not returnable and the bottles end up on the ground.(as do returnable cans and bottles). I see and pick up plenty marring the beautiful soccer fields and roads of my own town. It is perfectly simple to buy a water bottle and fill it with filtered water. I wish that the whole country would pass legislation to ban bottled water, along with plastic grocery bags. Why waste space in a newspaper with this drivel? Why not use it to promote environmental conciousness and responsibility instead?
I wish more people like you were running this country ... then there would be enough legistlation on everything such that I would never need to make another decision for myself ... what a relief that would be!
"I wish that the whole country would pass legislation to ban bottled water, along with plastic grocery bags. Why waste space in a newspaper with this drivel? Why not use it to promote environmental conciousness and responsibility instead?" / / /
While you're at it, in the name of the environment, why not just ban newspapers?
My rich uncle used to have a poster mounted near the shower/changing area near his indoor pool, which read, "We don't swim in your toilet, please don't pee in our pool!" I often got lost in trails of sideline thoughts about the gremlin looking images shown floating just above the lid of the American Standard. I suspect people have gotten so used to having sparklinkg, seemingly endless gleaming megahectares sitting in between some patch of rocks in geodescently blessed shapes of N.American topography.
Wait...what do I see...is it that same Elmer's Glue Gremlin figure coming around for a swim, creeping onto roadways, anywhere a teen can squeeze and pitch from a car window, or do a toilet stroke heat which wasn't in the eco-friendly Olympics. No, the water bottlers have fought tooth and nail against reasonable 5 cent return law ammendments tooth and toilet paper, with self-serving lies. It is time someone had the Moxie (no, that one's a 5cent deposit) to show their town all the crap that is floating in our environment from bringing in those 5oz micro-H20 bottles with the styro ties and the quick toss onto our streets to float around for years. We DO SWIM IN an environmenta toilet if we don't make people pay the measly 5c deposits, and to the author: don't pile all the other problems ontop this issue to float your purile....make like Betsy Ross and think globally, act locally. Save Massachusetts-incidentally, on my 10 mile runs down rte 9, I am the toilet roadside demon you might see throwing bottles over rich people's lawns-and almost every one is a H20 bottle (guess even metro-westies know the value of a nickel)!!!!
There are two issues of concern here, the environment, and personal freedom. / / / This self-satisied local feel good legislation may make some Concord voters happy, but they are infringing on the rights of others, and feel justified in doing it, a very, very slippery slope. / / / Non-returnable bottles are a stupid waste of our resources, and drinking bottled water is strictly for suckers, but passing laws that accomplish nothing yet damage our liberty is also a waste of a precious resource. Far better the folks who pushed this issue had spent their energy getting the legislature to put a five cent deposit on water bottles, and use the unclaimed nickels to fund environmental education.
Infringing on the rights of others? Yeah, right.
Yeah, Infringement. If one doesn't see that there's no further basis of discussion, but if one does, and we can drop our self-righteous poses, we see that, while you can't enforce specific behaviors without enfringing on personal rights, you can encourage and enhance positive behaviors if you utilize human nature, rather than combat it.
An uncharacteristically sensible article in the Boston Globe! Let's use this common sense on other issues and keep up the good work!
I am so sorry, Mr. McGrory, that you and so many others just don't get it. The only thing "healthy" about bottled water are industry profits which come at great environmental, and ecological expense. For the love of plastic bags, bottles, etc has plastic in our waterways forever more. Next time you go to a baseball game, a fair, or any public event, please educate yourself by looking at the trash bins. You will likely find a bin for the carbonated beverages, and another bin for trash. Guess whats in the trash? Plastic bottles and lots of them-in the trash. Plastic bottles ought to have a separate bin but they do not. Why? Because year after year, the bottling industry, and people think the expanded bottle bill is a money grab or whatever when it would serve to drive recycling - as provon by the separate bins for carbonated beverages. The recycling rate of these highly recyclable containers is dismal and extremely wasteful considering the waste of petroleum used to make the bottle, and to transport the bottle. The bottling industry has not stepped up while they reap the benefits, and protecting self interests by opposing the expanded bottle bill. And then we have that entitlement factor, a misplaced entitlement shared by millions, which boils down to wanting the convenience of plastic bottles and dismissing the problem. Because the expanded bottle bill has failed year after year, plastic bottles ends up in the trash rather than in a separate recycling bin. You and so many others have your head in the sand...which, by the way, is found to have plastic particles mixed in as a result of the plastic trash in our oceans which break down but never go away. The expanded bottle bill would go a long way to correcting the problem. Year after year, while the milions of bottles are piling up in landfills, lakes and streams, parks etc. and people like you blissfilly defend your right to enjoy bottled water as a "healthy" alternative. Thank you Jean, and the educated community that supported this hopeful step that serves the common good. I hope the industry takes notice. If not, the people will.
It is much cheaper to manufacture a bottle from recycled plastic than it is from virgin PET. The bottling industry should want MORE recycling to get access to more recycled PET. Instead of restraint-of-trade actions and deposits/taxes that are narrow in scope, the industry and municipalities should collaborate to promote (Fund) better use of existing curbside & transfer stations ... and support municipal recylcing bin donations and collections to capture parks, schools, athletic fields etc.
This person has taken notice. It's a nonsensical law that will fail, either by being repealed, or by people who will bring their bottled water to town with them and toss it where they would have if they'd bought it in town. Seriously....the solution should be smarter than the problem, and in this case, it definitely is not.
I have always wondered how it is that people manage to carry a bottle of water, tank of DD coffee a or bag of greasy take-out while thay are consuming it. They then become too weak to carry the EMPTY container to a trash can. I have become convinced that DD has an additive in their coffee that causes brain damage. DD drinkers are compelled, compelled I tell you...to pitch the cups, napkins and bags on the ground. They do this even when they are within 2 feet of a trash can. Has anyone ever heard of DD championing a campaign to rid the countryside of their own trash? OF COURSE NOT. Now, I think that DD should be banned from any town that I live in. I'm not kidding either.
C'mon Brian. This lady is right!
You can always put the fire out with a bottle of water.
You can always put the fire out with a bottle of water.
I have to remind myself as I come up to New England for the Jimmy Fund Walk to stop by the Concord Town Hall and burn the American Flag in protest.
Love this, thanks!
Testify!
Of course the lady is right, and Mr. McGrory is comparing apples and oranges, as they say. Ms. Hill is worried about the environment, not saturated fat or snack foods. That makes most of the column a distortion of what the issue is.
I agree that bottled water is basically a scam since everyone has running water, and it's readily available when not at home. Still I don't think it should be banned -- just make the deposit high enough that bottles won't be littering the streets and countryside. And don't just limit it to water.
Nice enough lady. Stupid, stupid cause.