A Setback in Baltimore City: Single-Use Plastic Bag Ban Delayed Until July Due to Pushback From Restaurants
Baltimore City is delaying its plastic bag ban until at least July. Per Mayor Scott, “at a time when people are hurting — both our residents who are out of work and local businesses — it’s just simply not responsible to implement this right now." Others were more direct, such as the quote by Terra Cafe owner Terence Dickson, "somebody else go hug a damn tree. Not right now. It complicates everything.” Meanwhile, Delaware's plastic bag ban went into effect on January 1st (thank you, Delaware!).
Yes, people are hurting in untold ways because of the pandemic, but increased plastic pollution is also part of the devastating effect of this pandemic, and it must be addressed (see this great panel discussion led by our partners at Environment Maryland). The restaurant association didn't support the plastic bag ban before the pandemic, and they're unlikely to afterwards, yet every year Americans continue to use roughly 1 trillion plastic shopping bags. In Maryland, only about 5% of those bags are recycled; the rest are either landfilled, incinerated (helping to exacerbate air pollution which increases health problems in places like Baltimore City), or are littered into the environment at large causing harm to our ecosystems, wildlife, and human health. We all know the grave statistics on this issue, and the crushing reality that we're on track to have more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. Single-use plastic bags are part of that problem, and Baltimore City devised a way to address it which should have gone into effect this month. More jurisdictions should do the same, but without delay.
The Maryland General Assembly goes into session on January 13th, and will take up, among other things, a bill that would ban plastic bags at checkout counters across the state. This is an opportunity for our elected leaders to make the right decision on plastic bags, as a number of other states and many localities (not to mention entire nations) have already done, by banning their use.