I hate leaf blowers and plastic waste, but most of all I hate telling others what to do. Ban the bans.

Put a deposit on plastic water bottles, don't ban them outright. Just limit use hours for leaf blowers. All these bannings are becoming ridiculous.

PLEASE!! People you don't know the real DANGERS of PLASTIC it's (DIOXINS) the worst CANCER causing agent on EARTH!! ASK any firefighter what DIOXINS are. Vinyl sidding-- Any plastic that catches fire or even close will release the most toxic cancer caussing agent on earth!! DIOXIN-- Have you heard of AGENT ORANGE!! Looking to cure CANCERS, this would be on the correct road to begin!

The more restrictive and outright silly our government becomes, the more sense it makes to MOVE.

+1 for "Ban the Bans"

Living in Peabody, I wouldn't drink any other water BUT bottled water. Our Peabody water is HORRIBLE and is probably more dangerous than water from a plastic bottle. Given the brown rings left around white tubs or toilets. Not to mention the brown foam that is visible when boiling vegetables. If I'm understanding Scott correctly, Vinyl siding should also be banned. Ban the Bans. This is becoming more than ridiculous! What's next?

Home of the Free and the Brave....Something to think about.
Enough already with the bans, if you don't like bottled water then don't buy it. Just don't tell me what I can and cannot do. Leaf blowers...really, How about a little common sense and some courtesy for your neighbors. Salt, trans fat, big gulps...get a life. Take care of your family and your self and instill in our children personal responsibility and most of our problems will go away.

Ban the Bans!
Please Just use a little common sense with leaf blowers and plastic recycling.
You get a few people controling the most people with these bans.

Ummmmm.... There's no dioxin in plastics of any sort. Phtalates and BPA may be other issues, but those have essentially been removed from bottles. The dioxin issue is as much urban legend as the "send this email to as many friends as you can and Bill Gates will give $1to fight (insert cause here)."

Brookline is doing it because we are hateful humans messing up our secular planet and causing acid rain to kill the whales who are struggling from global warming because the rainforest is being threatened by bullies from Wall Street and "Big Oil" carrying assault rifles.

When I was a kid, I often heard the phrase "It's a free country" usually in response to some sort of disagreement where one person disapproved of anothers behavior. I don't hear that anymore. Has another heard this phrase recently or has it been banned?

MikeA -- you're right. I can't remember the last time I heard or said that.

Time to bring it back!*

*Unless the "progressives" get their way to have the Constitution re-written because it's "outdated." Then you and I will be in the gulag for speaking ip against stupid populist ideas.

Ban liberals.

Ban anti-environmentalists or send them off to another planet to destroy.

Seriously, I would ban or charge a deposit for water bottles and ban plastic bags outright. Not sure about leaf blowers.

Let's ban transportation and electronic devices for 24 hours

Good point. Is there a time when it is supposed to be QUIET in Lynnfield? Personnaly, I won't cut the grass or use a lawnblower until 10 AM, just because it seems the right thing to do. But, I have seen others using them at the crack of dawn literally. The town could pass an ordinance to not allow these power tools till after maybe 9AM. These are mostly contractors, I am sure I am the only one in my neighbor hood that does his own yardwork, most eveyone hires someone.

Ban non profits for paying themselves more then 100K.
Ban nonprofits from being exempt from zoning laws.
I can see towns and cities wasting there time addressing zoning issues to try to control where the medical marjuana facilities will go because they will just set up as non-profits!

http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=34&t=6

While the issue of personal freedom is paramount, these bans are nothing more than feel good PR measures. Department of Energy statistics above show that ALL production of plastics uses less than 5% of petroleum resources annually. Of this plastic bottles and bags are a pittance.

By the way, the weather has been pretty nice for Jan - Global warming may be a good thing

LETS THROW ALL PEOPLE INTO THE SEA !!

Rather than banning, how about educating people! Which starts with collecting accurate information. Show them what the surplus of plastic bottles and bags does and suggest/provide ways to decrease their use.

Lets throw all Left wing communist socialistic Democratic liberals in the recycle bin.

With the billions of dollars at stake,...why can't they develop a more safe, eco-friendly container with all the advances in technology?
It would cost more, but it's better than being banned.

The forfeited nickels are just like the money from people skipping on their bail, or unclaimed bank deposits. This inadvertent income exists, and it's the job of the state to deal with it. Saying that the state encourages the deposit system as a money maker is like saying that they’re encouraging people to skip bail.

Perhaps the real solution would be to return to a society where people have respect for one another. Would we need a ban on plastic bottles and bags if they were used in moderation and disposed of properly? Would we need a ban on leaf blowers if gardeners and landscape companies would use them with some common sense and courtesy? Maybe what needs to be banned is selfish, careless behavior!

A vortex of swirling trash in the North Pacific Ocean is estimated to be twice the size of the State of Texas. Most of this flotsam and jetsum is plastic. The kind that lasts forever and ever. Plastic bags have been found in the stomachs of Albatrosses, and sparkling bits of other human-made matter are routinely ingested by fish of all sizes.

The Town of Concord's recently enacted measure to prohibit the sale of bottle water is an easy target for name-calling and ridicule. Everyone agrees that shoppers who want to purchase bottled water will make a short trip to a neighboring town to buy Poland Spring or Evian Water, or Sparkle-this-and-that.

Those who engage in the name-calling of polarized politics have found many ways to express their discontent. When viewed with a wider lens, the issue of bottled water is not about left-wing or right-wing doctrine, personal freedomws or about excessive regulation. Rather, it is about global warming , the consumption of fossil fuels, and our obsession with single-use products.

Perhaps the residents of Concord subscribe to the philosophy: "Think Globally, Act Locally." Which town will be next to join the march? Springfield, Hingham, Lawrence, Barre, Provincetown, or Wakefield? In short time Massachusetts could be the first state in the nation to make a proud declaration to the rest of the world about its commitment to a greener earth.

We are all part of the problem, and equally part of the solution.

Sadly it's already too late to save the oceans. The effects of global warming on the oceans has already set into motion a catastrophic chain of events that once begun, and it has, is extremely unlikely to ever reverse course. Now the goal is to slow the effects as much as possible to prepare for the coming disaster. My parents' generation ruined the planet with their overwhelming need for convenience and lack of concern for natural resources. Because of their selfishness and by teaching this same blindsightedness to most of my generation, now their grandchildren will pay an awful price. Enjoy your bottle of water that costs more to make than you can possibly comprehend.

Banning leaf blowers from the local government is illegal. Only the EPA has authority to do so based off the units emissions output. They can put them in place but cant be enforced. A local noise ordinance can be set and enforced. Do we really want to have our law enforcement spending time running around with decibele meters? People should just use common sense and common courtesy.

Sorry, I was hurling after reading about global warming... Must be the flu.

Only issue with leaf blowers is that "landscapers" use our catch basins as a trash bin for leaves, sticks and silt. Since we flood every time it rains, I would support hefty fines for those nimrods.

Free the Whales from Tibet! (Sorry, must be the medicine)

Now bottled water is banned, we could start making a change in our life style. It is not a big deal, carry with you a reusable bottled and fill it in a drinking fountain.
I know most people think tap water is not safe and that is true but there is a healthy and safe way to drink tap water and assure you a pure water and it is called Aquasmarter. They sell a reusable bottle with a purifier inside. I and my husband have one of them, and it is amazing, since we have it, we have no worries about drinking tap water

If you don't like one public drinking fountain, you have lots more to choose from. We only have one planet.

My experience doing Beach Clean Ups is that most of the trash is plastic food and drink containers and helium ballons.

We need to update the bottle bill.

The bottle bill needs to include - water and juice bottles.

How about banning dog walkers from using our sidewalks, parks and front lawns as a toilet for their dog. Walking around with a bag of dog waste shows what type of sub-human they are....sickening!!!

There is no use arguing, its too late, everyone wants to live in unnatural luxury and someday, possible quite soon the environment will adjust based on the changes mankind has made to it. Maybe the Mayans were right the world has already ended and we just don't know it yet.

In boxford we are going to ban American cars

What are we going to do about the explosion of coffee k-cups? They are designed to be thrown in the trash.