Plastic Bottles Don’t Need To Be Litter: Support Local Bottle Bills BY TREY SHERARD, ANACOSTIA RIVERKEEPER GREEN NEWS & VIEWS
Plastic bottles are public enemy number one for litter on the Ana- costia River and throughout its watershed in the District of Colum - bia (DC) and Maryland. For over a decade, plastic bottles have been half of the trash captured in trash traps when measured by weight and emptied before weighing. This matches the pattern we see across data from multiple groups’ water-based trash cleanups up and down the Anacostia River and its tributaries. See our 2023 Trash Mitigation Re - port. On land we find lots of glass bottles and aluminum cans as well, but plastic bottles are far and away the biggest part of the problem; and plastics carry the most additional impacts as litter. Aluminum and glass become sharps hazards in the environment, but they largely just go back to nature, albeit slowly, and they are rarely toxic in addition to being sharp. Plastic, however, never stops being plastic on a human timescale; it just gets smaller and more toxic as time wears on. The sun and other elements wear on the plastic bottle, shedding mi- croplastics and nanoplastics into our air, water, wildlife, and us. Even before the plastic is that small, it is responsible for killing all kinds of wildlife through entanglement and through ingestion where it cuts and/or blocks up the animals’ digestive tracts. Plastic is also a sponge for toxic chemicals; made of oil and fracked gas distillates, like-dis- solves-like, so plastic absorbs most of our local toxic contamination, including pesticides, PCBs, and other fossil fuel compounds. You can think of the plastic litter we see as a very slow, but still very harmful oil spill on land and in our streams. Ways to Support Plastic Reduction This is where you come in. The most fun way to remove plastic waste is to join volunteer cleanups run by Anacostia Riverkeeper or another group in this area. Not only can you help beautify communities and our environment, you’ll help us continue to gather data that, through our website (www.anacostiariverkeeper.org/programs/trash-mitiga - tion/), informs and reports back to the public, to local jurisdictions for their reporting to EPA, to articles like this one, and to new legislation in both the District and Maryland. That brings us to the easiest way you can help. Call your legislators and tell them to support your jurisdiction’s beverage container recy - cling refund law for litter reduction, also known as a bottle bill. The refund is the deposit repaid to the consumer for each empty can or bottle returned to a retailer or redemption center for recycling and our local bills will suggest ten cents for most bottles. Ten states already have these laws, and most have had them in place for decades. The laws work because people are given an incentive to return recyclables; and those states consistently see better and improving recycling rates and reduced litter. If you live in DC, please call your ward councilmember and each at-large councilmember. Ask them what they’re doing about bever - age container pollution, and tell them to support a beverage container deposit-return law when it is proposed. We hope to see one put forth early 2025. More information and resources can be found on the Re - turn, Refund, and Recycle Coalition for DC (3RCforDC) website: ww - w.3rcfordc.org/campaign. In Maryland’s General Assembly (GA), the session this January 2025 will be the third year such a law is proposed, and each year we have gained ground. We expect to see the law proposed in both houses again, and are hopeful this is the year it gets the momentum it needs. You can help by calling your state representatives and your state sen - ators.
A typical litter trap in a tributary feeding into the Anacostia River. Source: Anacostia Riverkeeper
Instead of passing a bottle deposit bill last year, the Maryland GA adopted industry’s push for an extended producer responsibility bill (EPR) and pushed off the beverage container bill in favor of a large recycling needs study for future EPR work. While the work going into the study is worthwhile, it will take a long time to properly set it up. In the meantime, we already have a tried and true tool for getting bev- erage containers out of our streets and streams; there is no reason for us to wait on EPR writ large. Firmly tell your legislators you want to see a beverage container law separate from EPR, and you want to see them support it now. You can find additional resources for the Mary - land action via Maryland Sierra Club (www.sierraclub.org/maryland/ zero-waste) & Trash Free Maryland (www.trashfreemaryland.org/). Today, plastic bottles are public enemy number one for litter here in the DMV. But you can help us keep them out of our neighborhoods, streets, and streams by supporting legislation where you live. After you make your calls to your legislators, join a volunteer cleanup, and stay in touch with us about other ways to reduce single use plastics in the Anacostia River. Trey Sherard is the Riverkeeper at Anacostia Riverkeeper (www. anacostiariverkeeper.org/) where he has worked for nearly 13 years now. Originally a marine biologist in North Carolina, he moved to DC to shift into policy and advocacy, and looks forward to eliminat - ing trash on this river with your help. Holistic Brand Photography In this very noisy world of ours, it can be difficult to reach the people you most want to work with, but I can help you with that! Hi, I’m Tammy Batcha - a holistic brands photographer in the Shenandoah Valley. The work you do is vital. Let’s make it easier for people to find you and for you to find the people you most want to serve.
TammyBatcha.com
TammyBatcha@gmail.com (540) 550-1971
PATHWAYS—Winter 24-25—15
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