Disposable Water Bottle Ban in Grand Canyon Scrapped

Did you hear the one about the top parks official at the Grand Canyon who tried to ban the sale of disposable plastic water bottles at the park, in an effort to decrease the waste (30 percent of the park's total garbage) caused by disposable plastic bottles?

Oops, it’s not a joke! Coca-Cola, which distributes Dasani water, got wind of the plan and it was scrapped only a couple weeks before its scheduled implementation. This may come as a shock, but money (Coca-Cola's, not mine) may have swayed the Director of the National Park Service, Jon Jarvis, to kneecap the ban. The company has donated more than $13 million to the national parks.

A Coca-Cola spokesperson, according to an article in The New York Times, "characterized the bottle ban as limiting personal choice."

Sorry, but this limiting personal choice argument is getting ridiculous. If people can't clean up after themselves (in one of the world's great spectacles, nonetheless), then they don't deserve personal choice. And how about my personal choice to take a hike without encountering (totally unnecessary) petroleum-based plastic bottles strewn all over the place? Unfortunately my personal choice doesn't include the purchase of anything, so I've got no shot of being heard.

Limiting personal choice? My ass. The ban did not extend to juice or soda, and plenty of (free) water filling stations for reusable bottles had been installed.

Is there anyone remaining in power who has any decency?

Maybe I should run for Congress. Unfortunately I don't have millions of dollars for campaigning, but the health insurance plan that comes with the job looks inviting enough to go into debt. Don't even get me started on the pillaging done by the health insurance companies. How can blind 20 percent annual increases be legal?

Click here for The New York Times article about the blocking of the bottle ban plan and click here for the blog post that acts as a sidebar to the story. Leave a comment below if you want to donate to my Congressional campaign. Also, contributions to help pay for monthly highway robbery (read: my health insurance) would be greatly appreciated.