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Cape Plastic Bottle Ban

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Our Goal

The Cape Plastic Bottle Ban is an educational and citizen advocacy initiative focused on raising awareness of the environmental and human impact of single-use plastic bottle consumption. In 2019, we initiated the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban, which focused on eliminating non-emergency single-use plastic bottle purchase by town governments and sale of beverages in single-use plastic containers on town property across all towns in Barnstable County, Cape Cod. As of year-end 2019, the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban was adopted by 11 of the 15 towns that comprise Barnstable County. In 2020, we have supported the filing of the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban in Bourne, Mashpee, Truro and Barnstable and initiated the Commercial Single-use Plastic Water Bottle Ban (Commercial Ban) in the 11 towns that adopted the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban. The Commercial Ban will eliminate the sale of non-carbonated, non-flavored water in single-use plastic bottles of less than 1 gallon in size within the jurisdictional area of a town.


Due to COVID-19, all our 2020 Ban efforts were postponed to Fall 2020 Town Meetings.


The following list is reflects the outcomes of fall 2020 town meetings. Your support of the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban and Commercial Single-use Plastic Water Bottle Ban is a support for the change we need to make in our individual behavior and as a society with respect to how we interact with  the Earth, her environment and other species. At year end 2020,  13 of 15 Cape towns have adopted the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban and seven towns have adopted the Commercial Single-use Plastic Water Bottle Ban, We are committed to facilitating the adoption of the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban and Commercial Single-use Plastic Water Bottle Ban in the remaining Cape Cod towns in 2021!


Current Town Meeting Dates:

  • Wellfleet: Saturday, Sept 12: PASSED
  • Brewster: Saturday, Sept 12: PASSED
  • Falmouth:  Monday, Sept 14 or Saturday, Sept 26: PASSED
  • Provincetown: Monday, Sept 21, 6pm: PASSED
  • Eastham: Saturday, Sept 26, 10am, outside: PASSED
  • Harwich: Saturday, Sept 26: PASSED
  • Dennis: Saturday, Oct 3: POSTPONED TO SPRING 2021
  • Mashpee:  Monday, October 19: PASSED
  • Orleans: Saturday, October 31: PASSED
  • Sandwich: Saturday, November 14: POSTPONED TO SPRING 2021
  • Yarmouth: Tuesday, November 17: POSTPONED TO SPRING 2021
  • Both the Bourne and Yarmouth BOS postponed the Municipal and Commercial articles, respectively to their spring town meetings.

Join us

2020: Commercial Single-use Plastic Water Bottle Ban

Commercial Single-use Plastic Water Bottle Ban

Single-use plastic bottles are made from non-renewable fuels, leach chemicals into consumables, and never biodegrade. Single-use plastic bottles impact environmental health, and the health and longevity of other species, who may ingest plastic as food. Ultimately, plastic re-enters the human food chain where the adverse consequences are both known and emerging. 


Like plastic production, recycling single-use plastic affects environmental and human health through emissions. Additionally, recycling single-use plastic is not a closed-loop process and does not reduce the need to create virgin plastic for use in the production of single-use plastic water bottles. Indeed, recycled plastic increases the presence of plastic in our environment through plastic downcycling, a production term that references the use of recycled plastic in other products from fabric to building materials. 


Over 1,500 single-use plastic water bottles are used and discarded in the U.S. per second. Elimination of the use of single-use plastic water bottles will have a significant impact on future plastic-based pollution including the nation’s greenhouse gas footprint and is consistent with protection of the natural environment in  Barnstable County, our nation and our earth, which we have a common responsibility to protect and steward.


The Commercial Single-use  Plastic Water Bottle Ban ( Commercial Ban) is a citizen action effort to reduce plastic consumption.  The Commercial Ban will eliminate the commercial sale of non-carbonated, unflavored water in single-use plastic water bottles. The Commercial Ban was adopted by seven towns: Brewster, Eastham, Falmouth, Harwich, Orleans, Provincetown and Wellfleet at 2020 fall town meetings. These articles will be enforced in September 2021. Sustainable Practices will support the adoption of the Commercial Ban in the remaining Cape towns as part of its overall 2021 sustainability strategy.


Recent news coverage highlighting our Cape activities can be found on Our News page. 

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The Commercial Single-use Plastic Bottle Ban has been endorsed by the Massachusetts Sierra Club.

2019: MUNICIPAL PLASTIC BOTTLE BAN

Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban

Plastic bottles are a by-product of the fossil fuel industry; they do not biodegrade and can last forever. Their production emits toxic waste into the air, and chemicals from plastic can leach into our beverages. After plastics are discarded, they pollute the air via incineration, contaminate groundwater through landfills, as well as harm to our oceans, beaches, roadways, and wildlife. Recycling is of little help and does not eliminate or reduce our dependence on plastic.  The hazardous effects of plastics are far more costly than indicated by price. They affect our immediate and long-term well-being. 


After successful passage of the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban in five Cape towns in the spring of 2019: Provincetown, Wellfleet, Harwich, Chatham, and Orleans, Sustainable Practices continued the campaign to reduce municipal plastic waste, adding  Brewster, Dennis, Eastham, Falmouth, Sandwich, and Yarmouth to the list of towns that have adopted the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban by year-end 2019. As of year-end 2020, both Barnstable and Mashpee have adopted the Municipal Ban, for a total of 13 towns. Bourne and Truro are the only remaining towns to vote on the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban and both will have the Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban article on their respective spring town meeting warrants. 


The Municipal Plastic Bottle Ban addresses single-use plastic by eliminating purchase of single-use plastic bottled beverages by town governments and prohibiting the sale of beverages in  single-use plastic containers on town property. We are actively engaged with towns to promote alternatives to plastic and are primarily focused on behavioral change in favor of reusable containers.


Recent news coverage highlighting our Cape activities can be found on Our News page. 

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Our perspective

We receive questions related to the bottle ban and in this section we provide our perspective on issues and topics of interest




Support Our Efforts

We are a volunteer led and staffed organization. All financial donations to Sustainable Practices are used in their entirety to support the organization's focus on raising awareness and promoting civic action to improve  human and environmental health. We are committed to fostering stewardship to enable sustainability. 

All donations are tax deductible. 


If you would like to donate your time, we invite you to contact us!


We appreciate your support of our commons.

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Sustainable Practices 2020

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