This spring bills were introduced in the Annapolis City Council and the Anne Arundel County Council to ban the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) food containers by food service establishments. The bills were modeled after the ban recently passed in Baltimore City. The county ban, if passed, would make Anne Arundel the third Maryland County to pass a ban on EPS food containers (after Prince George's and Montgomery).
The Annapolis bill (O-22-18) is alive and on track. The Anne Arundel Group provided written and oral testimony to the City Council in favor of the ban. Virtually all local testimony -- including some restaurants -- also favored the ban. Opponents included the Dart Container Corporation and the Maryland Restaurant Association. The bill has been sent to the Environmental Matters Committee (EMC), which will consider it on September 19th, 3 pm, at City Hall. There will be no public hearing, but the Group is drafting written testimony asking the EMC to consider strengthening the ordinance to bring it into conformity with bills in other jurisdictions in Maryland and possibly to include banning single-use plastic straws.
The Anne Arundel County ban (Bill 49-18) passed but was vetoed by the County Executive. The Group provided written and oral testimony to the County Council in favor of the ban, along with an even longer list of environmental and business supporters on June 18th. The Council passed the bill (4 – 3) on a bipartisan basis. However, the action was subsequently vetoed by the County Executive and an over-ride needed a fifth Council member to support it. The Group is pursuing a two-pronged strategy in support of re-introducing the bill after the November election: promoting the bill among all County Council candidates and persuading the school system to unilaterally replace their foam trays with alternatives.
For more background information, read this earlier blog.
Also check out this editorial in favor of a foam ban in the Capital Gazette.