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
Recycling challenges vary across the country, but, overall, states are failing to both reduce unnecessary waste and adjust to a changing recycling landscape, according to a new study from U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Environment America Research & Policy Center.
Congress is taking a look at the ways that Apple makes it harder to fix our iPhones, iPads and other products as a part of a larger antitrust investigation.
They cling to Baltimore's trees, litter the city's streets and end up polluting the Chesapeake Bay. And they may soon be a thing of the past.
The number of statewide plastic bag bans in the U.S. tripled in June, with Maine, Vermont, Connecticut and Oregon adding themselves to the list.
We've been telling everybody who will listen that the companies that make electronics and other products should make it easier to repair your stuff. In July, we got to tell the Federal Trade Commission...
Solid Waste
The state of recycling
In 2019, the state of recycling is disappointing. Our report shows that in order to tackle our plastic waste crisis, we need to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics we don't need, reuse what we can, and make it possible to recycle the rest. The time to take action is now.
Solid Waste | U.S. PIRG
Beyond Plastic
New plan could be single biggest step our country takes to curb plastic waste
Solid Waste | U.S. PIRG
We want the right to repair our stuff
Companies make it hard to repair our phones and other electronics so more of us trash our old stuff and buy new stuff. The Federal Trade Commission can make it easier.
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.
Support us
Your donation supports Maryland PIRG's work to stand up for consumers on the issues that matter, especially when powerful interests are blocking progress.