Falmouth Town Meeting Supports Plastic Bottle, Nip Bans

FALMOUTH, MA — Falmouth Town Meeting voters passed a pair of plastic bottle bans Monday night.

One of the measures banned the commercial sale of single-use plastic water bottles in Falmouth, while the other banned the sale of nips, alcoholic beverages found in containers that are 100 milliliters or less. The nip ban goes into effect on Oct. 1, 2021, while the single-use plastic bottle ban starts Sept. 1, 2021.

The single-use water bottle ban stemmed from a petition article written by resident Christine Kurcum. Kircum is a volunteer with the nonprofit Sustainable Practices which has spearheaded plastic bottles ban initiatives across Cape Cod.

Kircum was also an advocate of last year's ban on beaches providing and selling plastic water bottles.

"It's not just a plastic bottle issue, it's also to make us aware of our overconsumption behavior, Kircum said"Everyone here is well aware of how overconsumption of single-use plastics is detrimental to our health and the environment. I see this as a very positive move forward for Falmouth ad the Cape.

Madhavi Venkatesan, the executive director for Sustainable Practices, said bottled water was not always a norm for Americans, but became popular over the last 40 years because it was marketed as healthier and more convenient than tap water. She said unlike bottled water, municipal water is tested regularly and results are made public for the community.

"We lived without single-use plastic for most of human civilization and it has not done anything to optimize human life," Venkatesan said in an interview with Patch last year. "We are confident the ban will triumph over short-term gratification."

In a Spring 2019 report from Consumer Reports, 130 brands of bottled water were tested, and 11 of those brands tested positive for detectable levels of arsenic. One had levels of 17 parts per billion which is well above the federal limit of 10 parts per billion. Most of the bottled water companies that responded to the report said they adhere to government standards and that arsenic can be naturally occurring.

As for the nip ban, Precinct 9 Town Meeting member Peter Hargraves said the goal was to reduce litter. The Falmouth Litter Reduction Team conducted a study of roadside trash and found that nips make up about 32 percent of all roadside litter.