A waterfront advocacy group in Baltimore is hosting an event where locals can earn a "chunk of change" while helping to advance legislation protecting waterways.
According to Baltimore Fishbowl, the Waterfront Partnership and its Healthy Harbor initiative partnered with other environmental advocates for an event dubbed "Mr. Trash Wheel's Cash for Trash: A Bottle Bill Demonstration Event."
Mr. Trash Wheel, described on its website as a "part-time celebrity, full-time trash interceptor," is a semi-autonomous, water and solar-powered device installed in 2014.
Baltimore added three more interceptors to form the Mr. Trash Wheel Family in 2016, 2018, and 2021, and the quartet now intercepts waste before it can pollute the city's waterways. In addition to adorable "googly eyes," the robots have distinct and humorous personalities.
A profile for the original Mr. Trash Wheel lists his "dislikes" as "single-use plastics, fatbergs, and ducks," adding that the robot "denies ever eating one [duck] … two maybe," and notes it diverts "hundreds of tons of trash" from Baltimore's waterways each year.
Although the site claimed Mr. Trash Wheel was "far too lazy" to "chase trash around the ocean," the machine is hosting a three-hour bottle-collecting event at Peabody Heights Brewery on Jan. 31.
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Locals are encouraged to gather intact plastic, glass, and aluminum recyclables for the shindig, with each item redeemable for a 10-cent credit. There's a soft limit of 1,000 items, worth $100, but the Waterfront Partnership can make arrangements for larger submissions.
Overall, Mr. Trash Wheel's event has a capacity of 50,000 recyclable containers, after which no more can be collected. While the initiative is expected to encourage recycling efforts and inspire locals to take action, there's another key aspect.
The coalition aims to raise awareness and generate support for the Maryland Bottle Bill, legislation that WBAL reported could raise Baltimore's recycling rate to over 90% by imposing a 10-cent refundable deposit on recyclable items.
The Waterfront Partnership asserted that the bill would reduce litter and waterway contamination, noting that recycling rates in states that implemented bottle deposit programs are "three times higher than states without them."
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Would you recycle more if you were paid to do it?
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Yes 🤑 "Maryland's proposed Bottle Bill would increase the state's beverage container recycling rate from roughly 25% to more than 90% with the system funded and operated by beverage producers rather than taxpayers," the group wrote, per Baltimore Fishbowl.
The Waterfront Partnership anticipates that the Maryland Bottle Bill will be reintroduced in the Maryland General Assembly in early 2026.
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