Newton City Councilors Seek To Ban Nip Bottles

NEWTON, MA — Three Newton city councilors are looking to ban nips bottles as part of an effort to reduce plastic pollution and help protect the environment.

Councilors Emily Norton, Andrea Kelly, and Alison Leary proposed the ban at the June 21 City Council meeting, requesting a discussion on "the prohibition of the sale of miniature, single-use containers for alcoholic beverages in containers less than or equal to 100 milliliters."

"The intent is to address the amount of nip bottle litter that we have so much of in Newton, along parks, along roads, along sidewalks, you can't go for a walk really without seeing nip bottle litter." said Norton in an interview with NewTV. "

If the city succeeds in banning nips, it will join several other Massachusetts communities including Chelsea and Mashpee, that have already banned the single-use bottles.

"There's now microplastics at the deepest depths of the oceans, at the highest mountains, there's literally plastic pollution all over our environment, and while banning unit bottles in Newton is not going to solve that, when you think about what is the path forward to start to address that, local action has impacts," said Norton in the interview.

The proposal will be discussed at a Program and Services Committee meeting at a later date.