This year’s 90-day session closed last week after a head-spinning madhouse run through over 3,000 bills of which 810 made it across the finish line. The General Assembly passed only three of the 16 bills we were tracking (
click here for the list). These included a permit exemption for on-farm composting (
HB0253/SB0262), procurement requirements for compost, mulch, soil amendments and recycled aggregate (
HB0586/SB0782), and last, but not least, a very slimmed-down version of the EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) for packaging bill (
SB0222).
In response to advocacy from MRN and a number of other industry organizations, the EPR bill has been scaled back to the establishment of an Advisory Council and a Producer Responsibility Organization and most importantly, requiring a needs assessment to confirm a sustainable and financially viable basis on which to implement EPR in Maryland. The final version of the bill can be seen
here.