ATTLEBORO — A proposed ban on nip bottles was scheduled for a city council vote last week, but it was put off because ordinance committee Chair Cathleen DeSimone said she has a better idea.
While she’s in favor of the ban put forth by Mayor Paul Heroux, DeSimone is now hoping for action from the state legislature that would make a ban unnecessary.
Heroux lost a vote on the ban in June 2021 and resubmitted it this year.
The legislature is considering what has been dubbed a “Better Bottle Bill” which would impose a 10-cent deposit on nip bottles, the 50ml bottles containing one shot of hard liquor, as well as water bottles, vitamin drinks and other beverage containers that litter highways and byways all over the Commonwealth.
DeSimone contends that municipalities are exerting pressure on the legislature to improve the bottle bill, which was first approved in 1982, by individually passing bans that hurt retail liquor stores even if they do keep the streets cleaner.
And she’s urging liquor store owners and their customers to start a letter-writing campaign to support the Better Bottle Bill if they want to continue to sell nips.
The 10-cent deposit provides a financial incentive for people to recycle the containers and an incentive for those who pick up the bottles and cans when they are tossed on the street.
The return would double the current 5-cent deposit.
If the legislature follows through and passes the bill, a ban won’t be needed, DeSimone said.
She plans to introduce an amendment to the mayor’s proposal at the August meeting of her committee.
The amendment would propose that if the Better Bottle Bill is enacted before a city ban on the selling of nip bottles goes into effect, then the ban would not go into effect.
She said the city ban would likely be scheduled to go into effect a year after approval.
“If we do this right and exert pressure by enacting this ban, we’ll get something far bigger than the nip ban in Attleboro,” she told colleagues during a meeting last Tuesday. “We’ll get an updated ‘Better Bottle Bill’ that not only includes nip bottles, but water bottles.”
While the majority of the council was opposed to the ban last year, DeSimone called for “courage” on their part.
“We can do a greater good by just having a little bit of courage here,” she said.
State Rep. Jim Hawkins, D-Attleboro, said work has been done on the legislation, but added that bills only come up for a vote if everyone is in agreement, which guarantees passage. Failed bills can’t be brought back in the same session.
“There’s strong incentive to do something this session,” he said in regard to the Better Bottle Bill. “But that doesn’t mean it will come out.”
George W. Rhodes can be reached at 508-236-0432.
