Editing Concord, Massachusetts (section)

===Plastic bottle ban===
On September 5, 2012, Concord became the first community in the United States to approve a ban on the sale of water in single-serving plastic bottles. The law banned the sale of [[Polyethylene terephthalate|PET]] bottles of {{Convert|1|L|U.S.oz|sp=us|spell=in}} or less starting January 1, 2013.<ref>{{cite web|last=Llanos|first=Miguel|title=Concord, Mass., the first US city to ban the sale of plastic water bottles|url=http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/07/13710037-concord-mass-the-first-us-city-to-ban-sale-of-plastic-water-bottles?lite|work=NBC News|access-date=September 7, 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120909003553/http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/07/13710037-concord-mass-the-first-us-city-to-ban-sale-of-plastic-water-bottles?lite|archive-date=September 9, 2012}}</ref> The ban provoked national controversy. An editorial in the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' characterized the ban as "born of convoluted reasoning" and "wrongheaded."<ref>{{cite news|title=Concord Misfires in Plastic Bottle War|url=https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-xpm-2012-sep-13-la-ed-plastic-bottles-ban-concord-20120913-story.html|access-date=April 11, 2014|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=September 13, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20140412103708/http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/13/opinion/la-ed-plastic-bottles-ban-concord-20120913|archive-date=April 12, 2014}}</ref> Some residents believed the ban would do little to affect the sales of bottled water, which was still highly accessible in the surrounding areas,<ref>{{cite web|title=Concord, Massachusetts Bans Sale of Small Water Bottles|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-20895902|work=BBC News|publisher=BBC|access-date=April 11, 2014|date=January 2, 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428032426/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-20895902|archive-date=April 28, 2014}}</ref> and that it restricted consumers' freedom of choice.<ref>{{cite news|last=Weir|first=Richard|title=Battling Bottle Ban in Concord: Activists' Anger Not Kept Bottled Up|url=http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/01/battling_bottle_ban_concord|access-date=April 11, 2014|newspaper=Boston Herald|date=January 6, 2013|page=3|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20140413143850/http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/01/battling_bottle_ban_concord|archive-date=April 13, 2014}}</ref> Opponents also considered the ban to unfairly target one product in particular, when other, less healthy alternatives such as soda and fruit juice were still readily available in bottled form.<ref>{{cite news|last=Lefferts|first=Jennifer Fenn|title=Concord to Revisit Ban on Water Bottles|newspaper=Boston Globe|date=October 13, 2013|page=Region 5}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Nanny State Alert: Massachusetts Town Bans Bottled Water!|url=http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/04/04/nanny-state-alert-massachusetts-town-bans-bottled-water|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140411040524/http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/04/04/nanny-state-alert-massachusetts-town-bans-bottled-water|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 11, 2014|work=Fox News Insider|publisher=Fox News|access-date=April 11, 2014|date=April 4, 2013}}</ref> Nonetheless, subsequent efforts to repeal the ban have failed in [[open town meeting]]s.<ref>{{cite news|last=Anderson|first=Leslie|title=Concord Town Meeting rejects repeal of plastic water bottle ban|url=http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/concord/2013/12/concord_rejects_repeal_of_plastic_water_bottle_ban.html|access-date=July 30, 2015|newspaper=Boston Globe|date=December 5, 2013|page=3|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006112657/http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/concord/2013/12/concord_rejects_repeal_of_plastic_water_bottle_ban.html|archive-date=October 6, 2015}}</ref> An effort to repeal Concord's ban on the sale of plastic water bottles was resoundingly defeated at a Town Meeting. Resident Jean Hill,<ref>[https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/11/19/jean-hill-who-led-concord-plastic-bottle-ban-effort-dies/ZAfuGr4YcoLPi4TXkMUMKI/story.html "Jean Hill, who led Concord plastic bottle ban effort, dies at 90"] – ''Boston Globe'', November 19, 2017</ref> who led the initial fight for the ban, said, "I really feel at the age of 86 that I've really accomplished something." Town Moderator Eric Van Loon didn't even bother taking an official tally because opposition to repeal was so overwhelming. It appeared that upwards of 80 to 90 percent of the 1,127 voters in attendance raised their ballots against the repeal measure.

The issue had been bubbling in Concord for several years. In 2010, a ban approved in a town meeting, which wasn't written as a bylaw, was rejected by the state attorney general's office. In 2011, a new version of the ban narrowly failed at a town meeting by a vote of 265 to 272. The ban on selling water in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles of one liter or less passed in 2012 by a vote of 403 to 364, and a repeal effort in April failed by a vote of 621 to 687.