I was rather surprised when I went to a College Volleyball game at the College of St. Benedict a few weeks ago. My sister asked my niece to get her a bottle of water from the concession stand but she returned with a Diet Soda instead. "Here Mom, they don’t have bottled water."
I thought this was strange considering the health benefits of water but then I noticed the water bottle filling station behind me. I guess these are the new thing in helping to reduce plastic bottle waste. I see how this can work if everyone carries around their water bottles in their purse like I do but what if they work as well as my reusable bags? I still can’t get into the habit of using them in spite of the fact they have made their way from my car to my purse. It’s just something I don’t think of or am in too big of a hurry to pull out.
According to an article online the Grand Canyon was considering the ban of plastic water bottles until they met with Coca Cola. While Coca Cola may have ulterior motives for not wanting the ban on plastic water bottles I wonder if this is a smart move in a place where people suffer from dehydration on a regular basis?
What do you think about the ban of plastic water bottles?
Grand Canyon Abandons Bottled Water Ban, After Meetings With Coca Cola
Coca Cola got some brownie points yesterday for a plan to boost recycling at next year’s Olympics, but today it’s back to business as usual. Turns out the company has been using its dollars and influence to stop the Grand Canyon from banning disposable plastic bottles in the park.
Grand Canyon National Park officials were in the final stages of imposing a ban on the sale of disposable water bottles in the Grand Canyon late last year when the nation’s parks chief abruptly blocked the plan after conversations with Coca-Cola, a major donor to the National Park Foundation.
Coca-Cola, which distributes water under the Dasani brand and has donated more than $13 million to the parks, had registered its concerns about the bottle ban through the foundation, and that the project was being tabled. His account was confirmed by park, foundation and company officials.
Disposable plastic bottles make up about a third of the Grand Canyon’s waste stream—the single most popular item, according to the park official who’d put together the plan, as quoted in The Times.
It’s not like visitors to the park would go thirsty. PEER says that according to documents it obtained through FOIA, Grand Canyon spent more than $310,000 to build ten new water “filling stations” so that visitors using canteens or other reusable containers would have ample access to high quality water. Utah’s Zion National Park and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park both already have similar bans in place.
With requests this summer for records from the National Park Service (NPS) director already ignored, PEER filed a lawsuit today "to obtain records on this policy u-turn after NPS declined to surrender them."
