The State of Maryland is considering banning retail stores from distributing plastic bags at the point of sale to help tackle the state’s plastic pollution. The use of reusable bags would create less waste, reduce the state’s carbon footprint and would be better the environment.

In addition, there are no facilities in the state that can properly recycle the plastic bags because they damage the machines.

The Inner Harbor’s Mr. Trash Wheel, a solar-powered vessel, has collected more than 700,000 plastic trash bags since 2014, but the machine can’t separate the plastics from the rest of the trash, so it’s incinerated to create electricity.

The ban would be the first step in changing people’s behavior around single-use plastic.

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