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Should SLO ban water bottles?

February 3, 2016

BanBottle4C_Final-430x244At the request of local environmental activists, the San Luis Obispo City Council voted to place  banning the sale of single-use water bottles at city events on an upcoming agenda.

The council voted 4-1 to direct staff to craft the ordinance. Councilmember  Carlyn Christianson cast the lone dissenting vote.

A group of activists requested that the city ban 21-ounce single-use water bottles and place water bottle refill stations at several locations, including parks and downtown.

Councilman John Ashbaugh said the ordinance would probably return to the council in a month or two.

A water bottle ban is not unprecedented. San Francisco adopted a similar ordinance in March 2014.


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Can we Ban do-gooders that want to pass bans?


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I have noticed a lot of upset posts because of this being an ordinance. I feel like that people’s opinions of gov’t are getting in the way of better judgment. Just because the free market has allowed us access to something does not mean it is good for us. People are getting upset at “environmentalists” and the city for helping to eliminate a substance that is highly toxic to us, our wildlife, our oceans and basically everything that allows us as a species to live. I have yet to see one person be upset at the fact that the plastic water bottle companies, which are part of huge corporations like coca-cola and pepsi, are taking our own tap water, that we already pay for, filtering it and then selling it back to us in cancer causing bottles at a 2000% mark up. When plastic engineers won’t drink out of the bottles they help produce you know it is an issue. Removing this substance from our daily lives is a must. You are wearing blinders if you think this substance is safe for us or that it all gets recycled. There is plenty of data that will back up the fact that we only recycle a fraction of what is used on a daily basis. Literally thousands of tons of plastic waste ends up in our landfills or our oceans. And as soon as it enters our oceans it breaks down is consumed by fish and then enters our food stream. We are literally killing ourselves and future generations with these substances. On top of that for those who are tired up supporting foreign oil entities STOP buying plastic. Unless it is a plant based plastic you are supporting the oil industry with every plastic bottle you buy. Buy a filtration system if you are concerned with the state of our water. It is literally the same as much of the bottled water that you drink anyway. And if you only drink spring water look in to what spring that it is coming from. Fuji water is being stolen from fuji, Nestle water is stolen from public lands, and Aquafina (coca-cola) just had to come clean to the public that it is filtered tap water. We should be angry but not at the people who are trying to help. We should be angry at the companies and people taking advantage of all of us for the sake of unnecessary profits. And we all buy in to it when we support them. Again let me remind you PLASTIC CAUSES CANCER in humans and wildlife…


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You argument is rational. And this will not create any problems for the vast majority of people. And that’s where your reason falls off the edge of the cliff. What you are not considering is the outliers, those with different issues and circumstances than yourself. We’re not talking about beer here, we’re talking about WATER. By passing a law to FORCE this issue, and ban plastic water bottles at city evens, there are going to be very few vendors selling water (in glass). Now water is one of those things that some people need sometimes, and they need it quickly and conveniently, for reasons of health, comfort, and God knows what else. But that’s the point, you don’t know, and it shouldn’t matter. Maybe they didn’t bring their water bottle. Maybe they are having a heat stroke. Maybe they don’t want their water treated with a lot of chlorine and flouride. It doesn’t matter, in fact, really isn’t your business, but there are hundreds of legitimate reasons that are unrelated to apathy and convenience. But now you want to create an impediment to that.

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Here’s a question for you. What about soda? It’s available in cans and glass bottles. And they could put vending machines out just like they put water refilling stations. Where’s the ban on plastic soda bottles? And heck, why not ban cans and glass too because recycling is really kind of a scam and requires a lot of energy.


Let me offer you some alternatives. How about having the city waive fees for some licenses and inspections to any beverage business in SLO that packages their products in glass bottles with a deposit so that customers return them for wash and reuse, just like I currently purchase my milk? Or get each of the 100 concerned citizens to donate $10. I bet with $1000 you can install a couple refilling stations downtown yourself, then encourage people to use them.


You could come up with so many different ideas to make this happen with creating a ban, and using force, to make people do what you want. And do you have any idea how much money is going to be spent on this in terms of staff time, meeting time, document printing, and that’s just in the “talk about it phase.” If instead of spending that money, it stayed in everyone’s pocket (instead of going to the city though the sales tax extension), imagine how much could be accomplished by a relatively small group. It’s mind boggling. But go ahead, feel like you’re saving the planet, while you provide solutions that work for the “majority”: and create problems for those on the margins.


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No water bottle, no plastic bags, no trash cans, no skateboarding, no smoking, not dogs barking, no odors, no front yard chairs/couches, no working on cars at your house, no parking your boat in your driveway, $60 parking tickets…. need I go on any further?


Welcome to happy town!! Now go hide your trash cans and get your checkbook ready because the city manger needs another raise!!


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Wait don’t forget the $560 ticket if you walk in “open space” after dark or have your dog off its leash!


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Why go to San Francisco when the Peoples Republic of San Luis is right here


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Calm down. It’s a ban on plastic bottles being sold at city events. Not anywhere else.


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Read my comment in response to aaron g above and then sit your smug self-righteous butt down in front of a chalkboard a thousand times and write “I shall remember that actions may have unintended consequences and that I shall strive to teach rather than be a control freak.” 1000 times. Dismissed.


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Do we not have enough begging and panhandling in our streets in SLO county already? Now you want to take the livelihood away from many homeless who depend on those throw away bottles to make a little money at the recycling centers. In order to properly rinse and clean used bottles for refill, it’s going to take extra water which is in short supply in our drought area. I would hope the “save the water bottle” coalition would expend their energy on causes that make more sense.


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Can we get NAMES of these “activists” please?


I would like to know WHO IT IS that is steering my city in the direction of stupid, especially if their whining causes our “government” to take as minimal an action as possible.


My kids also informed me that the SLO High School will be putting in bottle refill stations in the future; so the idiocy is just spreading.


Never mind that the water quality around downtown and the High School is abysmal and some serious infrastructure renewal needs to take place, but NO, that’s common sense and doesn’t make some mental midget feel good about themselves saving the planet from people who are different.


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Nonsense, ban thirst


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