Bottled Water Co's are trying to stop the National Park Service from Banning Plastic Bottles

[n2doc]

The National Park Service thought it had a good strategy for reining in the discarded water bottles that clog the trash cans and waste stream of the national parks: stop selling disposable bottles and let visitors refill reusable ones with public drinking water.

But Big Water has stepped in to block the parks from banning the plastic pollutants — and the industry found an ally on Capitol Hill to add a little-noticed amendment to a House spending bill that would kill the policy.



As environmental groups and local officials campaign for a sales ban to reduce park waste and carbon emissions, the titans that manufacture Deer Park, Fiji, Evian and 200 other brands of water packaged in disposable plastic have mounted a full-court lobbying campaign on Capitol Hill to stop the Park Service’s latest effort at sustainability.

“This is a prominent, misleading attack on bottled water that has no justification,” said Chris Hogan, vice president of communications for the International Bottled Water Association, which represents 200 bottlers from Glacier Springs to Evian and is leading the charge against bottled-water restrictions.

more

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/wp/2015/07/13/how-big-water-is-trying-to-stop-the-national-park-service-from-cleaning-up-plastic-bottles/?postshare=5741436793313950

[randys1]

1. NOt one drop of water on the planet should be owned by anything other than

the people.

Have we lost our fucking minds!

[pscot]

2. The douchebag responsible for this is Rep Keith Rothfus

R. Pennsylvania, who can be found here:

District Offices

Ross Township
6000 Babcock Boulevard, Suite 104
Pittsburgh, PA 15237
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone] Johnstown
110 Franklin Street, Suite 150
Cambria County Complex
Johnstown, PA 15901
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone] Beaver
650 Corporation Street, Suite 304
Beaver, PA 15009
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Send him an empty plastic bottle with a note inside. This guy also opposes regulating power plant emissions; a real piece of work.

[Nihil]

3. Just pathetic.

> “This is a prominent, misleading attack on bottled water that has no justification,”

= "We want to continue our very profitable polluting con-trick whereby the public
pay through the nose for the very stuff that we've stolen from them."


Anyway, the National Park Service can *still* stop selling bottled water and *still*
provide fountains for the public to re-fill their re-usable ones (and, of course,
still sell re-usable ones of different sizes & colours to encourage people in the first
place).

They can also make sure that there are plenty of posters showing discarded
plastic bottles - making sure that the labels for "Deer Park, Fiji, Evian" and the
others in the IBWA are prominent - in order to discourage people from the
ridiculously wasteful practice whilst drawing their attention to the free water services.

If the "ban" has been blocked by typically corrupt politicians, the NPS can still
*discourage* people from being so wasteful and *educate* them in more
considerate (and cheaper!) habits.

Hell, if they really want to go for it, they could introduce a range of "traditional"
water carriers so that hikers could carry the same sort of water-skins as the
first people who travelled over those trails, way before the Age of Plastic.