Town Meeting To Consider Plastic Water Bottle Ban This Week

Tonight, Oct. 21, Framingham Special Town Meeting will be called to order and one of the issues elected Town Meeting members will debate is whether to follow the Town of Concord’s lead and ban the sale of non-sparkling, single-use bottles of water made of the chemical PET.

The Town Meeting article is a citizen’s petition submitted by Framingham High School senior Matt D’Amico.

D’Amico, who lives in Precinct 11, and is not eligible to vote yet at age 17, said he wanted to submit the proposal to ban the sale of bottled water for environmental reasons.

As he is not yet 18, his dad Andrew, a local attorney, is the sponsor of the Town Meeting Article - #10 on the Warrant. It may be heard as early tonight, but likely will be discussed and voted on Wednesday night.

If Town Meeting supports the citizen’s petition - the ban would apply to one liter-sized and smaller plastic bottles made of PET, or polyethylene terephthalate. (PET plastic items are marked with the number ‘1’ for recycling purposes). The ban would not prohibit residents from drinking from these plastic water bottles, just prohibit the sale of them within the town’s borders. The proposed ban would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2016.

D’Amico, who gathered most of his signatures for the citizen’s petition, at the main Framingham Library, said many told him they supported the idea.

Some environmental facts:

• Annually, the bottled water industry produces as much carbon dioxide as 2 million cars, contributing to global warming.
• It takes 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water.
• More than 80 percent of recyclable plastic bottles end up in landfills each year or almost 1 million tons of bottled water plastic.

D’Amico said he has heard from state representatives Chris Walsh and Tom Sannicandro, they both the support the petition, too.

Framingham Selectmen heard from D’Amico last week at their meeting, but it has been the policy of Selectmen not to take action on citizen’s petitions. D’Amico went before the Ways & Means Committee of Town Meeting, who also chose to take no action on the petition.

Bottled water is a multi-billion industry. According to the Sierra Club, more than U.S. $100 billion is spent every year on bottled water globally.

At last week’s Framingham Selectmen’s meeting employees from Massachusetts company’s voiced their opposition to the proposed ban. D’Amico said he has heard from few against his petition, except for the lobbyists and employees of the bottled water companies.

D’Amico said he is excited for Town Meeting to debate his petition, as its the purest form of government. D’Amico will make a 10-minute presentation before Town Meeting before Town Meeting members debate the issue and ultinmately vote on it.

D’Amico said some believe that bottled water is the purest form of water but he said there is nothing wrong with tap water.

Water aside, the plastic used in single-use bottles can pose more of a contamination threat than the water, according to a National Geographic report.

“A safe plastic if used only once, #1 polyethylene terephthalate is the most common resin used in disposable bottles. However, as #1 bottles are reused, as they commonly are, they can leach chemicals such as DEHA, a possible human carcinogen, and benzyl butyl phthalate, a potential hormone disruptor. And because the plastic is porous you’ll likely get a swill of harmful bacteria with each gulp if you reuse the bottles,” said NG report.

But the American Cancer Society states ”DEHA is not inherent in the plastic used to make these bottles, and even if it was, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says DEHA “cannot reasonably be anticipated to cause cancer, teratogenic effects, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, gene mutations, liver, kidney, reproductive, or developmental toxicity or other serious or irreversible chronic health effects.”

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has states DEHA “is not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans.”

And, American Chemistry Council, the FDA and the International Life Sciences Institute all consider PET safe.

D’Amico, who is on the high school’s debate team and is president of Flyers’ Model Congress, said he has met with Framingham High’s Principal to talk about getting more water stations installed at the high school to encourage students to stop drinking from disposable plastic water bottles.

In May 2013, Concord’s Annual Town Meeting voted down a citizen’s petition to repeal the town’s landmark bylaw banning the sale of single-serve bottled water, which was approved in 2012 and took effect Jan. 1, 2013. The proposal failed by 66 votes, according to Concord Patch.

On April 25, 2012, voters in the Town of Concord passed a bylaw to ban the sale of plain drinking water in single-serve (1 liter or less) PET bottles. The Massachusetts Attorney General approved the ban on September 5, 2012.

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Photo: Framingham High senior Matt D’Amico. Photo Credit: Susan Petroni

Originally posted at 12:35 a.m. on Oct. 21. Updated on Oct 23, to fix the tag to Politics.