Jennifer Kunze - Maryland Program Manager

This weekend, almost 150 people joined us for a special screening of "The Story of Plastic." The Story of Plastic takes a sweeping look at the man-made crisis of plastic pollution and the worldwide effect it has on the health of our planet and the people who inhabit it, from people in Appalachia and the Gulf Coast facing enormous new petrochemical infrastructure being built to expand plastic production, to people in China and Bangladesh dealing wi

Click here to submit your comments on the Baltimore City budget.

All of this week, the City Council's Budget and Appropriations Committee has been holding hearings on each city department's budget (you can watch the recordings on the City's Youtube channel), and the Council will vote on the budget as a whole on Monday.

Maryland's primary election is one week from today - have you received your ballot in the mail? If so, don't forget to mark it in black ink, and sign and date the back before sending it in!

We have a week and a half to go until Election Day, and voters across Baltimore City are finally receiving their ballots in the mail.

The future of Baltimore City will be decided in the next few weeks, as voters receive their ballots by mail and fill them out at home - for most of us, for the first time. (As you may have seen in the news, mailing ballots to Baltimore City was significantly delayed.

Have you received your absentee ballot in the mail?

If not, download your absentee ballot to print here.

Today, the House Economic Matters Committee is holding a hearing on HB438, a bill to correct a mistake Maryland made nine years ago: to call trash incineration renewable energy, and subsidize it with money meant to support new wind and solar power. We submitted this joint testimony signed by 33 organizations in Maryland.

Testimony Supporting HB438 & SB560

House Economic Matters Committee | Senate Finance Committee

February 20, 2020 | February 25, 2020

Position: Support

Today, the House Environment and Transportation Committee is holding a hearing on HB589, a bill to help build Maryland's compost industry by phasing in a requirement that large food waste producers (restaurants, cafeterias, schools, and large institutions) keep that food waste out of the trash if there is a compost facility that could take it. We submitted this joint testimony signed by 28 organizations in Maryland.

In the first weeks of the legislative session, 60 organizations signed on to this testimony in support of a suite of bills to end artificial incentives the state of Maryland gives to trash incineration, and support the development of zero waste alternatives.

Yesterday morning, we gathered with Baltimore City residents, advocates, Council members, state delegates, and Mayor Young for the final signing of legislation we've been working for over the past six months: the Comprehensive Bag Reduction Act! This city legislation bans plastic checkout bags in Baltimore, and puts a 5-cent fee on paper and other bags to make up the extra cost of purchasing these bags on stores, and encourage the use of reusable bags.