City Councilors Norton, Kelley and Leary have proposed new rules to prohibit “the sale of miniature, single-use containers for alcoholic beverages in containers less than or equal to 100 milliliters.” It’s been referred to committee.
Discarded nip bottles have indeed been the bane of our neighborhood for some time. They are everywhere. A ban of the specific packaging won’t get at the root problem .. though it may help clean up the streets some.
I do notice that where you see large quantities of them it often tells a silent sad story. There’s a parking lot in our neighborhood where dozens and dozens of empty identical nip bottles regularly collect around a single parking spot. It’s clear that someone parks there every single day, belts a few down, and drops the empties out the door. Our local liquor stores has boxes and boxes of every conceivable liquor in nip bottles – presumably for (mostly) sneaky daily drinkers.
PLEASE get it done! It’s probably the most common litter item in the city.
Removing them from the city won’t change anything. It’s just going to force people to go to other cities and towns to get them. Which gives the tax revenue to other cities and towns instead of Newton… seems like this would be a mistake.
A worthy effort. I’d like to see the plastic coffee stoppers replaced with bamboo first. The nips are at least glass which eventually grinds to a sand. ( I think they’re still glass?)
@Rick Frank – Lots (most?) of them are plastic
Have we thought about expanding the bottle bill to include nip bottles? It’s a long shot, but that’d be one way to get them off the streets.
@FWG – there was a statewide ballot referendum in 2014 to do just that and it was defeated 73% -27%. “Big Bottlers” lied and massively outspent the pro-environment side, because that’s how we do democracy in America, but that’s why I think we need cities and towns to step up to restrict plastic pollution in order to demonstrate to our state legislators that there is popular support for it.
Perhaps we could up the game and eliminate many of the city councillors Who come up with these crazy rules?
Leave the small business owners alone…haven’t you damaged their livelihoods enough already?
R. Manning. Correct. Leave the small liquor stores alone. They are already going under because of Wegmans and Total Wine type of chains. Yes. It’s a sad truth that there are many functioning substance abusers out there. Why doesn’t the city Councillors address the larger more complex problem of getting its citizens help who have this problem then passing a rule about small plastic bottles The littered bottles are from a small amount of people who will continue to toss them if they are purchased in the Garden City or a surrounding community. Wake up !
Actually in Chelsea it did reduce litter:
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/health/nip-ban-having-an-impact-in-chelsea/
Just as our plastic bag ban has dramatically reduced plastic bag litter here in Newton.
@Emily Norton– Does it not give you any pause that voters rejected this proposal by a 3-1 margin?
In my opinion, it undermines democracy and is disrespectful of voters, when elected officials cast aspersions on the voting process and use the power of their position to try and overturn the results of an election.
Mike – when and where did any voters vote on a nip ban?
Emily–
To my knowledge, voters have not had the opportunity to vote on a ban. But in a 2014 referendum voters rejected an attempt to expand the bottle bill, which would have included deposits on nips. If three quarters of the voters didn’t support the tax, how do you think they’d feel about a total ban?
I genuinely empathize with many of the causes you champion, including reducing plastic waste. While I know your motives are aways sincere and heartfelt, I often have to question the methods you use as a means to an end.
I really hope this ban passes because I support any laws addressing our pathological plastic dependence. But I have to admit that the argument that the 2014 rejection is a result of more spending on the “no” side is disingenuous. Kinda like the “stolen election” of 2020. You gotta give voters a little more credit than that.
interesting article about single use plastic problem. https://greenthatlife.com/plastic-problem/
I wonder how a ban in Newton will really fix the problem since they are easily accessible all around us. I find beer bottles and cans, coffee cups, fast food containers and more ( but I have never seen an empty nip bottle) all around my yard. And with the tables set up in Newton Centre (I am a big fan) it looks like a trash dump by evening. In front of JP Licks the other day I probably saw 30+plastic spoons on the sidewalk, in addition to cups, etc.. I agree with trying to eliminate plastic waste but in Newton Centre I see many more spoons than nips. Maybe that is because there is no longer a liquor store in Newton?
E Norton. Chelsea. Right.
The end of my comment would say Newton Centre-not just “Newton”
When I walk down Langley near JP LIcks in the evening, it is like a garbage dump. Banning plastic spoons may be a good idea, or perhaps an ordinance not allowing people to eat ice cream within a 100 ft of the store. That should clean things up. A ban is typically the easy and lazy way out for legislators to say they have done something.
This type of product is the visible outcome of some severe back story addiction problems. I would like to take those in favor of a nip ban to a local package store and talk with those purchasing/selling the items. There is some action needed here and the action would need to address serious social problems that makes a ban look petty. If cosmetics are your concern, just mandate that sellers of these bottles must clean up their area to a set radius of X number of feet from their stores.
I’ve participated in twice yearly clean ups at Hemlock Gorge for at least the past 30 years. In recent years, I’ve headed directly to the Ellis Street entrance of the reservation to rake that area clean and count how many nip bottles have been dumped there. The number has grown steadily from around 15 when I started to 38 two years ago. I went to this location during this April’s rake and clean to see if the pandemic had increased or decreased the number of bottles, but some other civic group had swept the area clean a week earlier.
It’s always perplexed me why serious problem drinkers would put out so much money for so little return when they could just buy a bottle of Old Thompson and do it at a fraction of the cost. Alcoholism is a horrible illnesse and my gut feeling is that most of those that drop their nips at Hemlock Gorge are lonely, defensive, scared, miserable and filled with tremendous guilt and almost impenetrable denial.
@Jess. I’m just pleased you call it “Newton Centre” and not “Newton Center”.
Bob, a lot of addicts don’t see themselves as such. If they just buy and drink small bottles constantly, they can fool themselves and others better than buying a large bottle that is harder to hide (from oneself and from others such as family members). Also maybe there are destitute people near at some of these locations. Finally the trash container at JP Licks may not be emptied nearly enough. Whose responsibility is this? Theirs or the City’s (to empty more frequently)? Same by CVS and TangoMango and Subway.