AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine lawmakers are proposing a bill that would ban single-serving plastic water bottles.
We are talking about plastic water bottles that are one liter or less. Small bottles of flavored or carbonated drinks would be exempt from this ban. Also exempt, bottled water handed out in the event of emergencies declared by the Governor.
The bill's sponsor Lori Gramlich, a Democrat from Old Orchard Beach, said this is about protecting our environment.
"As we know most, of the bottles wind up in our oceans and landfills."
Gramlich insists there are alternative containers that could be used such as aluminum cans or even boxed containers. But a representative for Poland Spring bottled water testified at Monday's hearing on the bill before the Environment and Natural Resources Committee that cans are more expensive and less environmentally friendly to produce.
Peter DePasquale said Poland Spring has spent millions upgrading its production facilities and does not have the ability to produces aluminum cans. He said the ban would harm the company and its vendors.
The International Bottled Water Industry is also against the bill. One of its arguments is that faced with no single-serving bottled water, people will make less healthy choices at the convenience store.
Also speaking out against the ban of single-use water bottles are trucking companies that ship bottled water in and out-of-state. Bottled redemption center owners like Donald Cook said this bill would run his business dry.
"I cannot accept a $46,000 hit. This bill will destroy redemption centers all across the state of Maine," Cook said.
Cooks believes any attempt to implement a ban on small plastic bottles should only happen after water companies can set up a switch to aluminum cans. Cook said aluminum is recycled at a higher rate than plastic so he would be fine with that. Boxed beverages are not recyclable, so if the switch is made to boxed water, Cook said redemption centers would also be devastated.
However, Cook added, Maine does a pretty good job with recycling beverage containers. The rate is about 75 to 87 percent of bottles bought with deposits, come back into redemption centers.
So is this bill even necessary? Gramlich said yes.
"We must reduce our use of plastics... and this is a start. "If we can wean the public off plastic water bottles, we can promote the benefits of our great tap water and reusable bottles."