Source (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/09/Concord-bans-sale-of-single-serve-plastic-water-bottles-100000000002216/concord-massachusetts-water-bottles-ban/70000003/1)
QuoteConcord, Mass., has become one of the first communities in the nation to ban the sale of small plastic water bottles, the Boston Globe reports.
The law, which takes effect Jan 1., makes the sale of single-serving plastic water bottles of 1 liter or less illegal.
First-time offenders will get a warning, second-time violators can be fined $25, and third-time offenders can be fined $50, the newspaper says.
It was the third attempt by environmentalists to get the bylaw in place. The state attorney general rejected the first effort in 2010, saying the bylaw approved in a town meeting was not validly written. A second attempt was rejected by the town meeting.
This week, Attorney General Martha Coakley ruled that the latest version, which passed in April, does not violate state or federal laws.
The bylaw allows an exemption during emergencies and it can be suspended outright if it proves too difficult or too expensive to enforce, the newspaper says.
The International Bottled Water Association, which represents 640 U.S. and international bottlers, distributors and suppliers, says it will continue to challenge the measure, the Boston Herald reports.
"This ban deprives residents of ... their choice of beverage, and visitors, who come to this birthplace of American independence, a basic freedom gifted to them by the actions in this town more than 200 years ago," the association says in a statement.
The town of 17,000 people was the site of the first armed conflict of the American Revolution.
It's a new year and we're already off to a hilarious start with government stupidity.
Quote from: D on January 01, 2013, 10:05:24 AM
Source (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/09/Concord-bans-sale-of-single-serve-plastic-water-bottles-100000000002216/concord-massachusetts-water-bottles-ban/70000003/1)
It's a new year and we're already off to a hilarious start with government stupidity.
You get used to that here in Canada. The last step in bringing a new law into effect here is official publication in the relevant Government periodical. By default, it publishes on January 1st and August 1st, occasionally with additional special editions if something that is considered pressing comes up.
Then there's a weirdness in how tax change are done, which is, apparently, legal, although it completely ignores the normal rules for all other types of law changes...