Maryland’s General Assembly begins today, and for the first time since 2018, Clean Water Action is not asking for your help in ending subsidies for burning trash under Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio. Your tireless support over the years made a difference, and the General Assembly ended these subsidies last year. Thank you!
We’re working to bring that winning energy into 2026 and secure real progress for clean water, zero waste, and environmental justice. Here are our top priorities for this year’s legislative session, and how you can help!
The CHERISH Our Communities Act
This landmark bill will create new protections for communities in Maryland that face the most pollution – which is important now more than ever. In an approach shaped by frontline communities and based on bills that have successfully passed in NJ, MN, and NY, it will put a stop to treating overburdened communities as sacrifice zones, and it’ll creating space for positive development that doesn’t harm people’s health to thrive.
- Learn more & take action!
- Download our factsheet:
The Bottle Bill
Every year in Maryland, over 5.5 billion beverage containers are sold, yet only one in four is recycled. That means more than 4 billion bottles and cans are tossed every year, piling up in landfills, spewing toxins in incinerators, or polluting our rivers and streams to threaten wildlife and contaminate drinking water. The Bottle Bill will dramatically increase recycling rates and decrease litter and pollution.
Banning “Chemical Recycling”
“Chemical recycling” is a category of processes that use incineration and other industrial methods to convert plastic materials into low-grade fossil fuels or chemicals. They are inefficient and will create new public health and environmental problems due to the staggering volume of solid, liquid and airborne waste produced.
Rather than waste money on false solutions to the plastic crisis, Maryland should focus on strategies that reduce the amount of plastic produced and consumed in the first place. A bill from Delegate Terrasa would ban these polluting technologies in Maryland.
Wasted Food Reduction and Diversion Grants
Delegate Boyce's bill would create the framework for state-run grants to fund food rescue, food waste reduction, and diversion from landfills and incinerators. These grants would provide critical support to build the infrastructure needed to get food out of our waste stream and into more beneficial uses – to hungry people, animals, or healthy soils.
Safer Septic Systems
Delegate Guyton and Senator Brooks are introducing a bill this year that would require a septic system inspection when a home is sold, or at least every three years when a home gets a new tenant. Inspections are an effective tool to catch failing septic systems early, protecting human health and the environment from untreated waste.
- Bill file: HB146/SB165
- Learn more & take action!
PFAS Reduction
PFAS is a group of “forever chemicals” that are linked with a variety of severe health impacts including cancer and immune system damage. It enters wastewater through consumer products and manufacturing, and the wastewater treatment process does nothing to filter it out. Lurking in biosolids applied to farm fields, the PFAS can run off into our streams and waterways and contaminate the crops and animals grown on the land.
Bills from Senator Love and Delegate Ruth would turn off the tap by banning consumer products with PFAS and limiting the spread of PFAS applied on land across the state.
Throughout Session, be sure to check your emails to get updates on these bills and others that emerge over the course of the next 90 days – the General Assembly moves fast! Your legislators want to hear from you as they consider these and other environmental bills.
Together, we’ll win victories for clean water, clean air, and healthy communities in Maryland in 2026!
