Don't Trash Maryland
BRING THE BOTTLE BILL TO MARYLAND — Maryland PIRG volunteers cleanup the Bladensburg Waterfront to demonstrate the need for a Maryland Bottle Bill to increase recycling and reduce waste.
The Bottle Bill Works
TO REDUCE LITTER
Our neighborhoods and waterways are littered with bottles and cans and at the same time our recycling rate is less than the national average. Marylanders throw away 3 billion recyclable beverage containers a year! We’re working to pass a 5-cent redeemable deposit on beverage containers to increase recycling and reduce litter.
TO INCREASE RECYCLING
The bottle bill is one of the nation’s most successful recycling programs. The ten states with Bottle Bills have an average container recycling rate of 60% and have seen serious reductions in litter.
FOR MARYLAND
By uniting the public, and putting our experts and advocates in the hearing rooms and offices where key decisions are being made, we can pass a Bottle Bill in Maryland. With your support we can pass this common sense law to increase recycling, reduce waste, and prevent litter.
Issue updates
America throws out immense amounts or trash, most of which is dumped into landfills or burned in trash incinerators. This is a costly system that damages the environment and harms our health. Luckily, communities across the country are turning toward a common-sense and beneficial solution: composting. Composting programs divert organic material – such as food scraps, leaves, branches, grass clippings and other biodegradable material – away from landfills and incinerators and turn it into a valuable product.
Baltimore -- Composting all organic waste -- including food scraps and yard trimmings -- could eliminate nearly one-third of all materials sent to landfills and trash incinerators across the United States. That’s according to Composting in America, a new report released today by Maryland PIRG Foundation and Frontier Group. The report outlines best practices for composting programs, which are critical for mitigating the negative impact of waste on the climate and public health.
For all of us who rely on our roads and public transit, and our water, sewage and power systems, the agreement reached by President Trump and Democratic congressional leaders in May to commit $2 trillion to infrastructure should be good news.
BALTIMORE -- Dozens of people gathered at the Baltimore Inner Harbor on Earth Day to congratulate the state General Assembly for passing the first statewide foam ban in the nation and call on Gov. Larry Hogan to sign the legislation into law.
Maryland is one step closer to becoming the first state to ban one of the worst forms of plastic pollution.
Solid Waste | U.S. PIRG
Let's move beyond plastic
Nothing we use for a few minutes should threaten our health and pollute our future for hundreds of years. One of the best ways to reduce the amount of trash headed to landfills is to ban items such as plastic foam cups and takeout containers.
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