New Year, New Session, Progress!
Greetings from Annapolis!
As the 2024 Maryland General Assembly kicks off, we're thrilled to share the latest updates on our ongoing mission for a cleaner, greener state. Let's dive into the exciting developments on our less trash and less litter agenda:
A proposal to create a Beverage Deposit Return System in Maryland. On the systemic change front, this is an off year for Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging with recommendations for implementing legislation to come in 2025. Progress wise, as of the first of the year, two more counties and two municipalities are now implementing “Bring Your Own Bag” programs! All the details below.
Beverage Deposit Return programs encourage recycling beverage containers (cans, glass and plastic). Consumers pay a deposit on the beverage (typically 5 to 10 cents) when it is purchased and get a refund of that deposit when the container is returned.
If you closely follow this topic, you know that ten U.S. states have had these programs in place for sometime. Largely, they are the most effective recycling programs we know of with recycling rates up to 90%.
There have been previous pushes in Maryland for this too. Over a decade ago now, our partners at the Baltimore Waterfront Partnership and the Abell Foundation, produced an analyses to support a legislative proposal. The legislation did not pass but many in the State have not given up on this approach. Delegate Jen Terrasa, working with the Sierra Club, introduced a beverage deposit return proposal last year and will do so again this year with Senate sponsor Senator Benjamin Brooks.
There have been no new beverage deposit return programs enacted in the US in the past decade.
Passing these bills is a big lift and some are turning their hopes to recycling beverage containers through extended producer responsibility programs. We will be working all out to extoll the benefits of beverage deposit return programs.
Packaging makes up almost a third of the waste stream in the US. In 2023, our Trash Free Maryland Advocacy Coalition achieved a significant milestone with the successful push for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Packaging. Delegate Sara Love and Senator Malcolm Augustine were phenomenal champions of this legislation which for the first time brings a systemic approach to requiring those who design the packaging to reduce the volume of packaging, plastic, and litter in Maryland.
During this off year, Trash Free Maryland will be working as part of a Council charged with developing recommendations for the final proposal to be considered by the General Assembly in 2025.
Our goal is to create the most effective program in the country, and we're learning from the experiences of four other states also beginning implementation.
Encouraging shoppers to bring their own bags has taken hold throughout Maryland. With the start of the new year, Anne Arundel County, Prince George's County, the City of Frederick, and the Town of Centreville joined twelve other Maryland jurisdictions in implementing "Bring Your Own Bag" programs. So many organizations, large and small, have worked incredibly hard to make this a reality.
These programs work and once we, as shoppers, get the hang of it, bringing your own bag becomes second nature!
None of this work is possible without you. Thank you for following us, sharing your ideas and showing us your unwavering support!
The Trash Free Maryland Team
