Your water bottle is illegal

Let's say you head out from your apartment or house to go downtown and run some errands. When you leave, it's cloudy, so you're wearing a sweatshirt, and you figure you won't be out that long anyway. Two hours later, the sun is out in full force and you're sweating, having trekked all over the downtown to get everything done.

In the convenience store you head to the back, dreaming of a cold bottle of water. But wait…there are none. You go up to the front counter and ask the clerk if there is any bottled water available and she shakes her head at you and leans over the counter, whispering with a sideways glance, "We don't have bottled water because it's…illegal…"

It's not a Twilight Zone episode, it's what life will now be like in Concord, Massachusetts. This small town with its population of just over 17,000 people is rich in American history, having been home to Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson and being the namesake of a great Revolutionary war battle, not to mention the classic Concord grape.

And now, they are the first city in the country to ban the sale of plastic water bottles. Not only will this save thousands of bottles worth of trash from the town, it will save the people in the town plenty of money. Check this out:

Cost per year of buying single serving bottled water to get to get the recommended 8 glasses per day: $1400

Cost per year of buying tap water to get the recommended eight glasses per day: $0.49

Wow.

This effort was led by Jean Hill, an 82-year-old activist who has been working on neighbors and local government officials for years.

Nice work, Jean. That's true grassroots activism, and it exemplifies the idea of being the change you want to see.

I can see this translating to the city with neighborhoods banning water bottles within them - what do you think?

Image courtesy of Klearchos Kapoutsis via flickr