Those spare bottles and cans you have lying around could earn you a chunk of change – and help advance legislation to keep trash out of local waterways.
The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore’s Healthy Harbor Initiative is teaming up with a coalition of environmental partners to host Mr. Trash Wheel’s Cash for Trash: A Bottle Bill Demonstration Event.
Community members are encouraged to bring their plastic, glass and aluminum cans and bottles to the event on Jan. 31 from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Peabody Heights Brewery.
Containers will be counted and redeemed for 10 cents apiece. Each container must be less than 1 gallon, and there is a limit of 1,000 containers per household; so a particularly dedicated household could earn up to $100.
Additionally, glass containers must be unbroken and placed separately from plastic and aluminum bottles and cans.
Those who want to bring more than 1,000 containers should email Chelsea@waterfrontpartnership.org.
The event has a capacity for up to 50,000 containers. After that total is reached, no more containers and payments will be processed.
The Waterfront Partnership is holding the event to raise awareness and support for the Maryland Bottle Bill, a piece of proposed state legislation that would add a deposit to the price of beverages that come in glass, plastic, and metal containers. Customers would then be able to redeem their empty containers for 10-15 cents apiece, depending on the size of the can or bottle.
Mr. Trash Wheel has removed more than 2.6 million beverage containers from the Baltimore Harbor. But across Maryland, only one quarter of beverage containers are ever recycled. That leaves more than 4 billion containers in landfills, on roadsides, in waterways, or in incinerators, according to the Waterfront Partnership.
But the Maryland Bottle Bill could change that by reducing litter and increasing recycling rates.
“Bottle deposit programs significantly cut litter and boost recycling, achieving rates up to three times higher than states without them,” the Waterfront Partnership wrote on their page for the Bottle Bill demonstration event. “Maryland’s proposed Bottle Bill would increase the state’s beverage container recycling rate from roughly 25% to more than 90% with the system funded and operated by beverage producers rather than taxpayers.”
The bill is expected to be reintroduced once the Maryland General Assembly recovenes for their 2026 legislative session from Jan. 14 through April 13.
