Your Office

Encourage your business to draft a series of Best Management Practices (BMPs) specific to your company. BMPs focus on good housekeeping and controlling pollutants at the source. Good/beneficial practices include collecting treating pollutants before they reach our waterways; constructing control mechanisms to capture washdown or stormwater; substituting a more benign raw material for a toxic one; reusing and recycling materials and water; shifting from chemical to mechanical processes; and improving the efficiency of technology and treatment of wastewater.
For all businesses using hazardous chemicals, cover and store all materials carefully; prevent, prepare for and clean up spills; bag or drum used chemicals (do not mix), as well as materials that have come in contact with them (including contaminated soil); label and transport to an EPA authorized disposal facility.
For restaurants, pressure-clean greasy equipment inside over sinks and sewer drains - not outside in parking lots where runoff flows to storm drains. Recycle paper, glass, aluminum, plastic, and cardboard. Ask customers if they would like water. Don't just provide it. Avoid plastic or paper dishware. Using 1000 throwaway plastic teaspoons consumes over 10 times more energy and natural resources than making one stainless steel teaspoon and washing it 1000 times.
- Report illegal dumping
- Buy unbleached or chlorine-free paper products

Part of the National Estuary Program,
the Maryland Coastal Bays Program is a partnership among the towns of Ocean City and Berlin, National Park Service, Worcester County, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Maryland Departments of Natural Resources, Agriculture, Environment, and Planning, who have come together to produce the first ever management plan for the coastal bays.

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Questions? Email: mcbp@mdcoastalbays.org