Boston Proposes a Ban on ‘Nips’: Why Cities Across the Country Are Legislating Against Mini-Alcohol Bottles

Mini-alcohol bottles have become the center of a nationwide debate over DUIs, crime and littering. Boston may soon be the latest city to ban them outright.  (Photo: Matthias Bein/AP Images)

The Boston City Council has just proposed a ban on “nips”, the miniature alcohol bottles known varyingly as “minis” or “shooters” throughout the country.

The ban would prohibit the sale of any alcohol bottles under or equal to 100 ml as well as the sale of single containers of beer.

Though the proposal might seem unprecedented, Boston is following a trend: in Massachusetts alone, the towns of Chelsea, Newton, Falmouth, Wareham and Mashpee have all banned mini-alcohol bottle sales within the past two years.

Similarly, New Mexico passed a state-wide ban on minis in 2021, while Rhode Island tried and failed to pass its own ban in 2022.

So why all the hate?

First invented in the 1860s, mini-alcohol bottles were long synonymous with hotel mini-bars and airplanes — supposedly, airlines used to give them out for free to passengers like Chiclets.

The bottles began to appear for retail nationwide in the late 1960s. At the time, legislators had mixed reactions; while some saw them as a meaningful step toward reducing binge drinking, others saw them as a cheap shortcut that would only make the problem worse.

That debate still rages to this day, though the focus has since shifted to the alleged involvement of mini-alcohol bottles in crime and DUI arrests.

But that isn’t exactly the conversation being had in Boston.

Above all else, minis have been branded a “littering epidemic.” Along sidewalks and roadsides nationwide, discarded Fireball, Jägermeister and Smirnoff nips have become a ubiquitous sight. In February, a Connecticut woman cleaned and bagged nearly 7,000 littered mini bottles in only a month.

Making matters worse, mini-alcohol bottles can’t be recycled as they’re too small to be captured by sorting equipment.

Nip cleanup initiatives have begun to crop up across the country to prevent a myriad of issues. In towns like Quincy, bottles are tumbling down storm drains and being flushed by customers at bars and restaurants, clogging up sewage.

All in all, mini-alcohol bottles have become an easy target for legislators hoping to simultaneously reduce littering and drunkenness.

If you’re looking to stock up on your favorite serving size of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, now might be the time.

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