Baltimore: What Now?

Last night the Baltimore City Council voted down a proposal to apply a 10-cent surcharge on disposable plastic and paper shopping bags. The measure, sponsored by Councilman Brandon Scott, had the potential to significantly reduce litter in Baltimore neighborhoods by prompting most residents to bring reusable bags with them when shopping.

The Council voted 6-9 against the proposal. Councilmembers Scott, Jim Kraft, Mary Pat Clarke, Nick Mosby, Bill Henry, and Bill Cole voted in favor. Opponents, led by Council President Jack Young, asserted that the fee would be a burden on small businesses and low-income residents, in spite of research in nearby Washington, DC, that demonstrates the opposite effect.

As seen in DC and Montgomery County, a small fee on bags is a powerful motivator for people to switch from disposable to reusable. When we have less disposable plastic in the community, we have less disposable plastic as litter. Bags are a major component of trash polluting our neighborhoods and waterways. They may not always be visible in the water because they don't float, but we've all seen them in trees, and along stream banks and roads. They get stuck in storm drains and can cause flooding. They are hard to recycle because they tangle in machinery. Cleaning up this mess costs money -- and yet they are so easy to replace with a durable bag.

One common claim by opponents was that Baltimore lacked a comprehensive plan to address trash pollution. This claim is not entirely true. Over the past several years, Trash Free Maryland, Blue Water Baltimore, and our partners have worked with several council offices, the Office of Sustainability, the Department of Public Works, and the Sustainability Commission to identify priority challenges and best-practice solutions. Together, these efforts approach the problem from multiple angles and have the potential to dramatically improve the cleanliness of our neighborhoods and waterways:

- The Healthy Harbor Initiative and Blue Water Baltimore created a Trash Working Group to bring city agencies and nonprofit environmental and community organizations together to identify specific litter hotspots and develop collaborative campaigns to tackle neighborhood litter. Corner cans were recently installed in targeted neighborhoods, along with literature educating residents and businesses about trash collection days.

- Trash Free Maryland and its members have been working with council offices to develop and advocate for strong and effective policies to change behavior around littering. At the recommendation of the Office of Sustainability and other partners, we prioritized a bag bill over a polystyrene foam ban in order to maximize public education opportunities and make both programs more successful.

- Trash Free Maryland, Blue Water Baltimore, and the Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper have collaborated with the Maryland Department of the Environment to develop a regulatory device to remove trash from the Baltimore Harbor and its feeder tributaries. This device, a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), encourages source-reduction and litter prevention programs as less expensive solutions to structural capture and removal tools, which increase in installation and maintenance costs over time without actually affecting public behavior.

We're disappointed that the City Council was misled by bad information and failed to take a proactive step toward a cleaner city. All three of these activities will continue in the City -- and all over the state of Maryland -- as our population grows, our use of disposable products increases, and the risk of litter and trash pollution mounts. Meanwhile more and more citizens are organizing and asking for change. Whether the City passes its own laws, or becomes subject to those approved in Annapolis, source-reduction and litter-pollution policies are coming.

Baltimore Bag Law: Clearing up some misconceptions

Gwynns Falls / Photo: Blue Water Baltimore

The Baltimore City Council may be voting on the 10-cent disposable bag surcharge this afternoon. Several letters from residents have run in the Baltimore Sun, and some of them reflect common misunderstandings.

Why a fee, not a ban?

Both approaches tackle bag litter by significantly reducing the number of disposable bags taken from stores. A fee allows people to decide: do I want to buy bags 10 cents at a time, or spend a dollar for one I can reuse for years?

Two advantages to the fee come from the fact that some people will continue to choose to use disposable bags. These funds provide both a safety net for disadvantaged residents, allowing the City to buy reusable bags and distribute them for free to those who need them, and the funds are available for broader environmental restoration efforts, expanding the impact of the law to more environmental needs.

Funds from the surcharge will also be available to pay for an education campaign to tell people about the law and the hazards of litter. Without these funds, such a campaign will require funds from another area in the City's budget.

A ban would only address the bags themselves, and the City would have to figure out ways to get reusable bags into the hands of people who can't afford them. Also, most bans around the nation still don't capture every disposable bag, because they don't apply at all stores.

How do we know the money will be used for these purposes?

The bill has been amended to clarify that the revenues will go to a sustainability fund. This dedicated fund requires a charter amendment, which will be on the ballot in November. Residents can also be confident that advocates will be aggressive in their oversight of this fund--we want this program not just to pass, but to work.

Why plastic bags? I see lots of other litter too.

We can educate people about the problems of litter generally, but to create significant behavior change, we have to target specific behaviors. Each component of litter is associated with different specific behaviors, so each component requires a specific approach. With bags, we can significantly reduce litter by encouraging reusable bag use. With beverage containers, we reduce littering and increase cleanup by making the bottles and cans worth something--a refundable deposit has been proven for decades to work. For cigarette butts, we need disposal devices that people don't fear will catch fire--and we need people to realize those filters are not biodegradable. The list goes on. Addressing disposable bags is just one piece of the puzzle.

Isn't this a tax on the poor?

Everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, can make the choice about whether to bring a reusable bag or not. The bag law will only affect your shopping bill if you choose to use disposable bags. Period.

Won't it hurt small businesses?

In DC and Montgomery County, no business has reported declining sales because of bag laws. Instead, most report significant savings because they don't have to buy as many bags. Only 8% of businesses surveyed in DC in 2012 oppose the bag law--and their reasons are because they feel their customers misunderstand it.

Baltimore, we can do this. We can change the perception that the city is dirty. We can get bags out of the trees, out of the storm drains, and out of our waterways. Please call your council member today and ask them to vote YES on Bill #13-0241.

Join us February 3 for our first Member Meeting & Training

One of our goals for 2014 is to help our fantastic members better connect with each other, and provide members with more resources to create effective campaigns. We have members all over the state, protecting local streams, teaching students, cleaning up neighborhood parks, and making compost. Imagine the power we have when we come together to work for the same goals!

Trash Free Maryland Alliance members are invited to our first annual member meeting and training, on Monday, February 3, in Annapolis. The event is free for all members--including staff, interns, board members, and volunteers. We have a great agenda planned out and can't wait to see you all!

Register by clicking here. More detailed info will be sent directly to registered individuals so please sign up by January 31!

If you are not yet a member of Trash Free Maryland (see the member list to the right), email Julie for more info about how to join.

Agenda

3:00-3:15 Introductions and Overview of Trash Free Maryland (Julie Lawson, TFMD director)

3:15-3:45 The Science of Plastic Pollution
3:45-4:00 The Psychology of Litterers

4:00-4:45 Policy Solutions to Litter
- TFMD Legislative Agenda Overview
- Container Deposits (Mike Smaha, Owens-Illinois)
- Disposable Bag Fees (Brent Bolin, Maryland League of Conservation Voters and TFMD co-founder)

4:45-5:00 Break

5:00-5:45 Making Your Voice Heard (Jen Brock-Cancellieri, Maryland League of Conservation Voters)
- Overview of the General Assembly
- How to Influence Your Representatives

5:45-6:00 Wrap-up

Thank you to Delegate Michael Summers (D-District 47) for sponsoring this venue!

Do plastic bags enable more littering?

Eastern Avenue, on the border between Washington, DC,
and Prince George's County, Maryland

I've been taking note of bags like the one above lately. Someone obviously cleaned out his or her car, using a plastic grocery bag to contain it all, and then left it next to the curb or alongside the car when driving away. I've certainly found bags like this during trash cleanups, and I've picked them up on the street. (I did pick this one up after taking the photo. It was mostly single-serve juice bottles and snack wrappers. Maybe the driver had done a road trip and this was the food bought along the way. There are no Wawa stores near where I found the bag, so it had definitely traveled.)

They generally don't fit down storm drains, at least not when full. Street sweepers might pick them up, but more likely the bags will be torn apart by animals looking for food, or they'll get run over (since it was left in the road), and the contents will scatter.

Clearly people who do this are thinking about what they are doing. The bags are tied shut, usually placed upright. This demonstrates what we learned in the 2008 littering behavior research that OpinionWorks conducted for the Alice Ferguson Foundation. In that study, admitted litterers participated in focus groups and psychoanalysis to get to the root of why they litter. In general, they feel a lot of stress and lack of control in their lives, so they try to keep their very narrow concept of their personal space tidy, to the detriment of the outside world. In other words, they keep their cars clean but don't think about where they put the collected refuse--so setting on the street outside their car is just fine.

At the same time, litterers know that the action is illegal; they just don't expect to get caught. So they tend to set the litter down instead of throwing it; they say, "the bottle wasn't broken when I left it there."

And so we end up with plastic bags filled with trash, neatly tied and set upright next to a car. Until, of course, it gets run over and the contents blow all over the place.

These bags also remind me of the American Progressive Bag Alliance's claim (yes, the trade group that represents plastic bag manufacturers) that 90% of people reuse plastic bags. This stat sounds great, except the vast majority of these "reuses" are one-time reuses, like picking up dog poop and lining household trash cans. I wonder how many people say they are reusing their plastic bags to clean out their cars, and then leaving the full bag on the road.

If we stopped using plastic bags, and instead used durable reusable bags for shopping, would it force these somewhat-conscientious litterers to change their behavior, to clean out their cars at gas stations or at home, where a proper disposal container is available?

The modern-day tumbleweed

The modern day tumbleweed – the plastic bag – blowing in the wind, and right into our waterways…

We have all seen them, every day of the week, whether on your way into work or out walking around, there they are: brown, white, blue, black . . . plastic bags fluttering through the air, stuck in tree branches, floating on the surface of the water, clogging up the storm drains. I know you are committed to reducing trash in Baltimore’s streets and waterways and are sick of seeing this eyesore – so let’s speak up today and let our City Council members know that we want policies in place to reduce the use of disposable bags (and polystyrene containers and to increase recycling while we are at it!)

Did you know that last year Travel + Leisure magazine ranked Baltimore the third dirtiest city in America?! Now, more than ever is the time for all of us to support efforts like Councilman Brandon Scott’s bill (13-0241), which would set a nominal fee on disposable plastic and paper bags; a proven and effective measure for reducing disposable bag use and litter.

Your City Council representatives are holding a bill hearing on January 21st at 9:45 am. Look up which district you live in, if you don’t already know, and please call or email your member of City Council today and let him or her know that you support this measure – you care about clean water, stronger neighborhoods, and the health of our City!

As Councilman Scott has been quoted, “We have more plastic bags in the streams than fish. If you go to a park in my district, all you see is plastic bags." This is unacceptable and it is time we stand up and make a difference!

Disposable bag fees are not even a new idea – check out this great article about Hawaii’s recent move to ban plastic bags, making it the first state in the country to eliminate this nuisance.

Don’t think your voice matters? Think again! As the article points out, Hawaii’s success came from local, grassroots efforts. The ban did not come from the state legislature but instead from the four County Councils. The article also notes that the plastic bag ban is only just a first step; if they were to enact a fee for paper bags as well, they would further reduce the use of disposable products.

We can do it Baltimore!!

- by Kristen Weiss, Blue Water Baltimore