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
AUSTIN, Texas -- U.S. PIRG Education Fund , Environment America Research & Policy Center, and Student PIRG sent 59,000 petitions and a letter signed by more than 40 state lawmakers Thursday to Whole Foods urging the company to commit to a comprehensive plan for phasing out single-use plastic packaging from its stores. This follows a March 2021 letter signed by more than 130 advocacy and community groups calling on the national supermarket chain to adopt a bold response to the plastic pollution crisis.
We need policies like Right to Repair to address the dangerous flood of electronics waste
This pandemic year intensified both our waste generation and our grasp of its unsustainability.
Unrestrained by the Right to Repair, companies test the boundaries of ownership. People are pushing back, and recently forced the craft device maker Cricut to abandon a change to its terms of use.
Environmental advocates support ‘Right to Repair’ legislation
Solid Waste
Nation's strongest plastic waste bill returns to Congress
The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act would install a national bottle bill, ban some of the worst single-use plastics, and shift more financial responsibility for collecting and processing plastic waste onto plastics producers.
Solid Waste
Polystyrene ban goes into effect
A statewide law is now in effect prohibiting restaurants, schools and food service businesses from using polystyrene foam containers. The law was originally passed — with strong support from Maryland PIRG — in March 2019, making Maryland the first state in the country to pass a ban on the single-use plastic foam items that continue to exacerbate our plastic waste crisis.
Solid Waste
Baltimore City Council passes ban on single-use plastic bags
The council voted in favor of a ban on thin, single-use plastic bags handed out by retailers in the city. The legislation promises to reduce the amount of plastic waste littering Baltimore's streets and polluting the Chesapeake Bay.
Solid Waste
The Fix Is In
Our survey found that independent repair shops currently offer many repair options that some manufacturers don’t make available. Apple and others are making it harder for individuals and independent repair shops to fix our devices.
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