Shocking

Some towns are considering banning the sale of liquor "nips" - those small plastic or glass bottles containing about 50 mls of liquor. A reason cited by the proponents is that these small bottles wind up as litter along roadsides.

As a member of SeekonKs Recycling Committee and a regular cyclist - I decided to do a count. On SundaV 3l2Ll2l I did my usual 12 mile circuit in south Seekonk and adjacent Rehoboth. My bike path is along residential and farm areas. Some of the streets include Cole, Fieldwood, Miller, Bradley, Lincoln, Lake-Summer, Wheeler, Water, Reed, North Wheaton, Allen-Almeida, and Willard.

I ride with the flow of traffic so my study involved only the right side of the roadway. Well, in L2 miles I counted a shockingLsA nip bottles. This number averages to more than 11 containers per mile. Of course, they were not evenly distributed. Nips tended to be tossed out along empty lots, wooded areas and farm lots.

Should we ban the sale of nips? Well, there are pros and cons, but they do appear to be a significant part of the litter problem.

Paul R. Coutu
South Seekonk