Residents to Maryland General Assembly: Get plastic bags out of our communities

FEBRUARY 12, 2015 — A bill introduced this week in the Maryland General Assembly would ban disposable plastic bags across the state, reducing litter and slashing overhead costs for retailers.

At a briefing today sponsored by nonprofit organization Trash Free Maryland, bill sponsor Delegate Brooke Lierman (D-District 46) described the bill as a win for communities, a win for our waterways, a win for retailers, and a win for local governments.

“If passed, this bill will result in cleaner neighborhoods and waterways throughout our state, as well as long-term decreased overhead expenses for our retailers,” added Lierman. “In other words, it is one of those rare win-win opportunities, and I am hopeful that the legislature and Governor will take action to pass this legislation this year.”

The bill, titled the Community Cleanup and Greening Act (HB551 and SB620), would prohibit retailers from giving out plastic bags at checkout, with exceptions for meats, produce, and limited other items. Retailers would also be required to charge 10 cents for each paper bag distributed at checkout, incentivizing shoppers to use reusable bags. Retailers would keep 5 to 7 cents of the charge, with the remainder returning to counties for local programs to reduce trash pollution, distribute free reusable bags, and improve access to fresh foods.

Baltimore residents at the briefing spoke of bags and other litter blighting their neighborhoods around Patterson Park and East Baltimore, diminishing a sense of community pride.

Kim Wiggins is the green coordinator for the Patterson Park neighborhood. She observed that other greening projects are made more difficult by litter in the community.

Cheryl Bryant counted 532 plastic bags on her walk from her home to William Paca Elementary School, where she volunteers. She took some of the students on a field trip to the Prince George’s County recycling center where they learned that, like Baltimore City, Prince George’s does not accept plastic bags at curbside. “Why do we expect people to take their groceries home in these bags?” she wondered.

Rashawn Smith from East Baltimore said of his time working at a grocery store, “I saw bags were a major cost. People use way too many of them, and they are unnecessary. Why do you need a bag for a bag of chips, when it comes in a bag? What are you going to do with it? You’re going to throw it away.”

Steve Raabe of OpinionWorks, an independent research firm based in Annapolis, spoke about the findings of a 2013 DC Department of the Environment survey of 177 businesses. The survey found that half of business owners reported saving money on bags, and only 8% of business owners oppose the bill.

“Litter is increasingly visible along many of our roads. The vast majority of the litter is plastic bags or plastic wrappings,” said Senator Karen Montgomery (D-District 14), the bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate. “This bill will also relieve the merchants of the cost of the paper bags they can offer since the charge covers that expense. Let’s clean up all our neighborhoods and our waterways. “

Our 2015 Maryland legislative agenda

On Wednesday, a new General Assembly will be sworn in, ushering in a new legislative session that may run very differently from the past four years. Even though the Assembly still has a veto-proof Democratic majority, Republican Governor-elect Hogan, a clear anti-tax mandate from voters, and a looming budget deficit have many progressive campaigns in a defensive posture.

Trash, however, has proven to affect everyone, from urban neighborhoods to rural farmland to the fishing community in the Chesapeake Bay. There are also a lot of ways to tackle the trash problem, and our goal is to work with the new Assembly to find common ground on solutions to keep making progress on reducing trash pollution across Maryland.

That said, we are focusing our efforts on three campaigns in 2015:

- Plastic bags. Bag bans and fees are proliferating rapidly around the US, with California passing the first state-level ban on plastic bags in 2014. In Los Angeles County, a two-year-old ban on plastic bags (with a 10-cent charge on paper) has reduced total disposable bag use by 90 percent. That's all the plastic bags, plus a drop in paper bags. It's an incredibly compelling solution to get shoppers to use reusable bags.

As we know in nearby DC, a 60-percent drop in bag use following a disposable bag fee turned into a 60-percent drop in bags found in streams and parks. Imagine cutting bag pollution in our state by 90 percent!

Bags are also a tremendous expense for retailers, sometimes as much as their third-highest overhead cost. If they no longer have to buy plastic bags, and can cut paper bag use, that savings can go back into the business, spurring investment, growth, and better pay and benefits for workers.

In 2015, Trash Free Maryland proposes that Maryland ban plastic bags and put a small fee on paper bags, motivating consumers to use reusable bags. The program pays for itself, reduces litter (and the inherent cleanup costs), and saves retailers money.

- Microbeads. A tube of toothpaste can contain as many as 300,000 plastic beads, all for color. (See those blue specks on your toothbrush?) A bottle of face wash, too. (Those are for exfoliating dead skin.) But they all wash down the drain, slip through wastewater treatment plants, and wind up in our rivers and the Bay.

Made of polyethylene, the beads absorb toxic chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers, becoming toxic balls that aquatic life mistake for food. Dentists even report finding tiny blue beads in their patients' gums. The beads are quite visible in samples from our recent Chesapeake Bay Trash Trawl.

Natural alternatives are readily available, including walnut shells, apricot stones, and even salt or sugar. Instead of washing synthetic beads into our waterways, we need to push manufacturers to redesign their products. Several major manufacturers have agreed to voluntary phaseouts, but their timelines are a decade away. Can we afford to let our fish continue to mistake these beads for food, polluting our food chain from the bottom up?

Virginia, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Hawaii, and California will all be considering legislation to ban the sale of microbead-laden products this year. Like the ban on phosphorus in detergents, these state-level bans will drive manufacturers to reformulate their products nationwide and prevent this plastic pollution from increasing on a global scale.

Trash Free Maryland asks the General Assembly to ban the sale of personal care products containing microbeads, to protect our local fisheries and the Bay.

- Enforcement. While source reduction is key, we also need to get serious about penalizing the people who contribute to the trash pollution problem. Last year we passed a bill to put points on the drivers licenses of people convicted of illegal dumping, creating a statewide penalty system and a more meaningful punishment.

We know that people litter as a rebellious act, in part because they believe they won't get caught--or if they do, the punishment will be light. Bolstering enforcement has tremendous potential to not just stop repeat offenders, but prevent other littering and dumping behavior too.

We are eager to work with legislators to identify targeted solutions, whether it's mandating community service picking up trash, streamlining the citation process to make convictions easier (and more likely to stick), or specific approaches for problem items like tires or construction debris.

We'll also be tracking related legislation as it's introduced, and working with sponsors and other advocates to pass good policies to achieve a trash free Maryland. Stay tuned for updates, and have a great session!

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.

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?

We love this video

An excellent video parodying the DC bag fee has been making the rounds. Enjoy!

Join our Ecumenical Lenten Bag Fast

Lent is a time to repent, reflect, sacrifice, and listen for God. This year we invite people of faith and congregations to "fast" from plastic bags -- to give up using them and instead use reusable cloth bags.

During a fast, we are conscious of our actions, and give up our self-reliance and control. After 40 days, we are renewed and refreshed, having traded in an old, bad habit for a new, healthy one.

Carry a reusable bag with you to use on a regular basis and remind yourself of your practice. Reflect and pray on what you are doing, listening to what God may speak to you during this time.

Sign the Lenten Plastic Bag Pledge and return to Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake. We will keep track of the pledges and can support you during your Fast. Ask your congregation and/or denominational leaders to participate in the Fast. Tell your elected officials that you are fasting from plastic bags for Lent and why. Let them know that, as a person of faith, this is a spiritual issue for you. We can help you do this.

-By Dottie Yunger, Executive Director, Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake