Nips are only part of the overall scattered trash that has lined our roads for years here in South Plymouth. The fast-food litter and many varieties of alcohol containers all chain our beautiful natural road scapes. Bagged and loose trash also line the many routes to the Manomet town dump. Local pond associations have collectively implemented road cleanups. They’re not just picking up empty nip bottles. All trash is the problem.
But the campaign is to ban nips, not coffee cups, or French fry bags, not coke cans, and milk shake containers, cigarettes, straws, just nips. So many small business owner/operators would lose a source of income, and the piles of trash will remain on the roads and parking lots.
This proposed ban on nips just doesn’t seem to even come close to a meaningful solution to this nagging problem. A five-cent deposit, if applied to nip bottles, and already in place for other alcohol containers, would create jobs, reduce litter, and apply a practical, bipartisan solution that would not hurt our local businesses. There clearly is a better solution than mandating a seemingly undemocratic ban. This problem is bigger than nip bottles.
Roy Maher