State lawmakers are looking to put Mr. Trash Wheel on a diet by considering a bill that would add bottle deposits to single-serve containers.

Consumers who return the bottles would get that money back. Supporters hope the bill will serve as an incentive to recycle so that fewer bottles end up in our waterways.

According to the Container Recycling Institute, Marylanders buy 5.5 billion bottles each year, but only a quarter of the containers get recycled. The legislation considers the refundable deposit as an incentive to recycle.

Less than 10% of that is being recycled. We think this bill will allow up to 75% of that to be recycled,” said Baltimore County Sen. Benjamin Brooks, D-District 10.

The belly of Baltimore’s iconic Mr. Trash Wheel is often bursting with bottles.

A giant metal rockfish sculpture is stuffed with some of the material Mr. Trash Wheel gobbles up. There are discarded plastic, glass and metal beverage containers — none of which was recycled.

That’s the point of the Bottle Bill, which drew dozens of supporters Friday to a rally on Lawyers Mall.

The Bottle Bill adds a 10-15 cent refundable deposit on beverage containers. Consumers pay the deposit upfront. But when they return the empty bottle to a store, reverse vending machine or drop-off point, they get the money back.

“The goal is to get all this excess plastic out of our waste stream. And we are trying to create a mechanism for consumers to do that,” Brooks said.

“It is to address a serious and complex problem, which is trash and pollution. So, we need a Bottle Bill,” said Chris Williams, with the Anacostia Watershed Society.

According to bill supporters, four billion containers are tossed into the environment.

“As a doctor, I am asking all of us to act now so we can safeguard our collective health,” said Dr. Elizabeth Ryznar, a psychiatrist. “We need to reduce the amount of plastics in our environment and we need to reduce the amount of plastics contaminating our soil and our water.”

“Passing the bottle bill is not just an environmental imperative. It is not just a health imperative. It is a moral imperative,” said Bob Simon, with Maryland Catholics for Our Common Home.

The bill calls for non-refunded money to go into a fund that provides recycling grants to help local jurisdictions develop recycling plans.

The Maryland Retailers Association opposes the bill, calling it a regressive tax. The association said it saddles businesses with space limitations on returns and creates sanitation issues.

Click here to review the article from WBAL.