You Ask, Patch Answers
What’s Up With This ‘Free The Water’ Campaign?
Each week, we set out to answer a question on the mind of Concord Patch readers as part of our You Ask, Patch Answers column. This focus of this week’s column is the FreetheWater.org campaign and website that’s been making a bit of a splash of late.
Looks like the Concord Residents for Consumer Choice group has a new website and branding campaign pushing for the repeal of Concord’s revolutionary bottle-banning bylaw. According to members of the group and a sentence at the bottom of website's homepage, FreeTheWater.org “is supported by Concord Residents for Consumer Choice, a local coalition of concerned citizens.” The original group, Concord Residents for Consumer Choice, is seeking to repeal a bylaw prohibiting the sale of non-sparking, unflavored drinking water in single-serve PET bottles of 1 liter or less. The bylaw was approved by annual Town Meeting last April, was ratified by the Attorney General’s office a few months later and took effect earlier this year. Concord resident …
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Patrick Ball
9:27 am on Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Stephanie, if I'm not mistaken, it actually passed the first time (2010), failed the second time (2011) and passed again on a third try, in 2012. In 2010, Town Meeting approved a bottle ban that was not written as a bylaw. Arguing that there were "no teeth" to article, the selectmen opted against trying to enforce the ban, and it was later rejected by the Attorney General's office. -pb more ›