Halfway through the 2025 session!

We are just over halfway through Maryland’s busy 2025 legislative session! We are tracking more than two dozen bills related to reducing waste and litter, and we have been organizing our legislative advocacy coalition every week to provide education and testimony.

Here are some recent highlights:

Bottle Bill Rally & Hearing Feb. 14th

We gathered in Annapolis to rally for a bottle bill. We heard from bill sponsors, watershed protection groups, environmental and human health advocates, and other community leaders in a demonstration of support and sharing of the unique litter reduction benefits of a bottle bill for Maryland.

Testifying in front of the House Environment & Transportation Committee

HB232/SB346 Maryland Beverage Container Recycling Refund and Litter Reduction Program (“bottle bill”). A small deposit (10-15 cents) is added to the purchase price of a beverage and then refunded to the customer when the beverage container is returned for recycling. The deposit-return system creates a unique incentive to recycle, and keeping the beverage containers out of the rest of the recycling stream creates a cleaner, higher quality material more suited for recycling into more uses, including new bottles. Beverage containers make up about half of the litter we find in our cleanups. We think adding a refundable deposit would provide the right incentive to change behavior and dramatically reduce litter. The next step is for the Committees to consider and vote on these bills.

We are also supporting these bills tackling different parts of our waste stream with exciting new policy solutions:

SB901 Packaging Materials - Producer Responsibility Plans. This bill would create an Extended Producer Responsibility (or “EPR”) program for packaging in Maryland to shift responsibility for packaging at the end of its useful life from local governments (and taxpayers) upstream to the producers who make it. The program could help modernize our dated recycling infrastructure and incentivize manufacturers to improve packaging design with environmental considerations in mind. Packaging makes up almost one third of our waste stream and much of it is plastic. It is costly for local governments to manage in waste and recycling programs. Contamination, hard-to-recycle materials, customer confusion and loss of confidence, and outdated infrastructure are some of the current challenges standing in the way of increasing our recycling rate. An EPR for packaging program can provide incentives and targets to producers to reduce packaging volumes and design for better environmental outcomes. The bill is currently being considered in the Senate Education, Energy, and Environment Committee (EEE).

HB42/SB134 Solid Waste Disposal Surcharge and Wasted Food Reduction and Diversion Fund and Grant Programs. This bill adds a $2/ton waste disposal surcharge to create and fund grant programs to support food waste diversion, high quality composting (to minimize potential contaminants like microplastics), and transitions from single-use to reusable food service ware. The grants could be used for a variety of uses to stimulate innovation or provide seed funds to start new projects based on local priorities. The hearings are over and the bills are in consideration in the Senate EEE and House Environment & Transportation Committees.

We led sign on testimony for other bills that aim to reduce single-use plastic, including: 

• HB69 Plastic Post-Consumer Recycled Content requirements to build market demand and value for high quality recycled materials

• HB277/SB96 - Water bottle filling station requirements in certain new construction to make it easier to refill reusable water bottles

• HB338 - Prohibits disposal of yard waste from state highway and property maintenance in single use plastic

• HB639 - Requires sports venues to allow attendees to bring and use a reusable beverage container

Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility Advisory Council & Recycling Needs Assessment

We continue to meet with Maryland’s EPR for Packaging Advisory Council to identify best practices and develop recommendations for an extended producer responsibility for packaging program for Maryland. We’ll be reviewing the just-released Statewide Recycling Needs Assessment to assess the opportunities and challenges for EPR, recycling refunds (“bottle bill”), and other policies to improve our recycling system and reduce trash and litter pollution in Maryland.

Montgomery County Council unanimously approved the Bring Your Own Bag Bill!

We submitted testimony in support of this bill to update Montgomery County’s plastic bag legislation to ban certain plastic carryout bags and to increase the paper bag fee from 5 to 10 cents. Retailers will keep 5 cents and the other 5 cents will go to Montgomery County’s water quality protection programs. The county’s Department of Environmental Protection will distribute reusable bags ahead of the January 2026 implementation date to help customers prepare to make the switch to reusables from single-use plastic bags. Data from our cleanups supports the efficacy of plastic bag bans and fees in preventing plastic bag litter in our neighborhoods and waterways. We’re pleased to see the alignment with similar legislation in neighboring jurisdictions as well as the incorporation of best practices (like banning plastic bags and using a meaningful paper bag fee to incentivize a switch to reusable bags).

Although we are still in the midst of the legislative session, we are also beginning to plan our spring and summer litter cleanups and events. We have some exciting plans this year! As always, we are so grateful for your support. There are exciting policy opportunities this year to complement our on-the-ground work to reduce litter in our neighborhoods and waterways. Thanks for supporting a Trash Free Maryland!