We all know the expression about old wine in new bottles, or old wine in new bottles, right? Well, in the land where Thoreau once roamed, you won't be able to fit new or old water (rather than wine) in little bottles anymore, as they are doing away with bottled altogether with a proposed ban. At least, a certain kind of bottle: the small, plastic water bottles that you see for sale everywhere these days - and which you often see littering the sides of roads and highways. In what is often seen as the place where the environmental movement first had it's roots, at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, for that matter, I saw some of those same plastic bottles littering the otherwise pristine landscape. But that might just change, apparently.
Yesterday, I wrote about a recent, solitary trip that I took up to Walden Pond. It has been a stressful month or so for me, and I just felt that I needed something in the way of a break. I was hoping that Walden Woods and Pond would restore me, revive me. For me, as cliche as this might sound, it truly feels like a special place, a spiritual place. Of course, the natives used to feel, and some people still feel, that everyplace on Earth is a sacred place, and they are probably right. But there are some places that feel different, they feel special. Walden is such a place. So is the town that it is in, Concord.
In fact, it is still making history, and doing things that are catching people's attention, or at least perhaps making them raise their eyebrows.
What kind of history? Well, the mot recent headlines that the city of Concord made was this month, just in the last couple of days. You see, Concord became the first city in the United States to ban the sale of water in plastic bottles.
This comes after state Attorney General Martha Coakley expressed confidence that the measure would stand up in a court of law. So, in effect, the town of Concord will go ahead with it's ban on water bottles.
No, this is not a joke. In fact, it's quite serious. But perhaps it takes a little explaining.
Now, I don't know about you, the reader. But I remember a day when the thought of selling people water would have seemed ludicrous. At least here in America, where anyone could (and still can) get perfectly healthy tap water from any sink or fountain. Why pay for what you can get for free, after all, right?
The thing is, there seemed to be a shift in beliefs during that time. I am not that old, yet I can remember a time when there used to be a greater level of faith, and a lesser emphasis on skepticism, then exists now. People took it for granted that you could get perfectly decent water so cheaply and easily. It literally cost nothing, after all.
But there came a time, perhaps in the late eighties, and certainly by the early nineties, when small water bottles became more readily available. And people were buying it, more and more! Nothing sells if there's no market for it, if nobody wants it or is willing to buy it. We all know that. Yet, perhaps surprisingly in a land driven so strongly by the love of money, people were buying what they could get for free. Not just buying it, but doing so in droves.
Now, the question may be raised as to why, exactly, this happened. What could make people pay for something that they had always gotten (and still can get) for free before?
The answer seems to have been fear. You see, somehow or other, people started to get the impression that the tap water you get from your tap isn't good, that it is somehow tainted, polluted. I will not get into the specifics of the arguments here, although environmental advocates insist that this fear is unwarranted, and the claims of tainted water are simply untrue. They also claim that the amount of oil it takes to make each bottle is simply too much, that it takes too much energy and causes too much pollution to justify it. They urge people to keep the faith in regards to traditional tap water.
So, town activist Jean Hill, who apparently led the movement for the ban (there is an activist organization called Ban the Bottle that applauded the measures, although it was unclear at the time of my writing this whether or not Ms. Hill was involved with this group, or the extent of how active this group was in the bottle ban), hailed it as a victory. "I hope other towns will follow" she said.
"I feel bottled water is a waste of money."
Of course, there certainly is no shortage of detractors and activists, of a sort, in opposition of the measure. That includes the International Bottled Water Association.
"This ban deprives residents of the option to choose their choice of beverage and visitors, who come to this birthplace of American independence, a basic freedom gifted to them by the actions of in this town more than 200 years ago, " the group said, "It will also deprive the town of needed tax revenue and harm local businesses that rely on bottled water sales."
Concord is not the only city contemplating the possible move of banning bottled water. San Fransisco is also considering it. And the town of Bundanoon, Australia, at least claims to have been the first to do so, back in 2009.
The Concord ban is set to take effect on January 1st, and Town Manager Chris Whelan is still working with the Board oh Health on the specifics of the regulations.
It should be noted that Concord not only had unique chapters in it's history with the role that it played in both the American Revolution and the transcendentalist literary movement, but that it had a strong role to play in the environmental movement, as well. It is often seen as the birthplace of the movement, thanks largely to the writings of local resident Henry David Thoreau, who wrote his most famous pieces, Walden and The Duty of Civil Disobedience, here in town. That led, more than a century later, to a fight against development of the Walden Woods, that attracted all sorts of attention. I will be reviewing a book shortly, called "Heaven is Under Our Feet", which was aimed at using the funds generated from the sales of the book to purchase the land in order to preserve it. There are numerous contributors of strong fame and repute, including a former President and other prominent politicians, as well as famous actors and musicians, as well as activists. Don Henley, the noted singer and songwriter who enjoyed success as the front man of the Eagles and went on to have a successful solo career, seemed to lead the charge to preserve Walden Woods.
Some people have speculated that water might be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th, and so on a very serious level, the privatization and commercialization of water (which, again, used to be entirely free) has some wider ramifications, as well. Nations and corporations are expected to war over it, and thus, the rise of bottled water is not merely symbolic, but an absolute indicator of just how important and potentially divisive this issue is.
Here is the link to an article by Miguel Llanos of NBC News that reports on the story, and from which I got much of the information in this blog, including the quotes:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/07/13710037-concord-mass-the-first-us-city-to-ban-sale-of-plastic-water-bottles?lite
Other links:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/09/06/ags_office_oks_concord_curb_on_sale_of_bottled_water/
http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/se_mass/concord-massachusetts-set-to-have-plastic-water-bottle-ban
http://www.wcvb.com/news/money/Concord-s-plastic-water-bottle-sales-ban-OK-d/-/9848680/16499116/-/lt8w0o/-/index.html?absolute=true
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?csp=34news
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