Welcome to the 2021 Virginia General Assembly! To stay up to date about the 2021 General Assembly, be sure to follow our legislation tracker (with 2021 bills being added currently) at Litter Free Virginia, and sign up for our email list while your there! During the General Assembly we send out about 1 email every week to help Virginia residents be active participants in our state’s legislative process. Being an odd numbered year, this will be a short session, and it looks like it is going to be kept to a quick 30 days. This gives elected officials two weeks to hear and vote on every bill before the bills crossover. There aren’t as many litter and plastic waste bills this year as 2020, but there are still a few we are tracking. Our two priority bills this year are holdovers from last year. The debate to ban expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and beverage service containers continues, and we are expecting to see a bill that will make intentional balloon releases illegal- current Virginia law allows the release of 49 balloons every hour.

The General Assembly is starting HOT! HB 1902 the bill to ban the use of expanded polystyrene food and service containers will be heard before the House Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee tomorrow (1/13/2020). Now is the time for action, let YOUR elected official know you want them to support the ban on expanded polystyrene food and beverage service containers. Make your story personal, elected officials want to hear why their constituents support a bill. Let them know you find expanded polystyrene when you’re walking your dog, or that you see it covering parking lots when you go to the store.  Last year, this bill was sidelined because of some nonsense about how there might be a recycling facility for EPS built in Virginia.  except that there are few if any facilities that recycle FOOD EPS and that is exactly what this bill addresses. Even worse, this delay was caused by Fairfax County senators- you can read their comments from last year here on the Environment Virginia website.

You can find the contact information for all Delegates on the House Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee here. If you need to find out who your elected official is, you can use the Who’s My Legislator page from the Virginia General Assembly. You can submit comments for tomorrow’s hearing with this link. You can watch tomorrow’s committee hearing using this link. 

Here are some talking points for your message to your legislator:

EPS foam containers for takeout food and beverages are a major source of plastic pollution in Virginia. 

Made of styrene, a known hazardous substance linked to various types of cancer, EPS foam is a petrochemical derived product that is a serious concern for human health and wildlife. Toxic chemicals from EPS foam containers can leach into food and drinks and then be ingested, especially when the food or beverage is served hot. People who work in areas with high concentrations of styrene have increased rates of cancer, neurological issues, and depression. For low-income communities and communities of color, this concern is especially acute. Often suffering from insufficient access to grocery stores with affordable and nutritious food, these communities are forced to rely on fast food options, which are often stored in EPS containers.

The chemical industry has argued that recycling is the solution to their harmful products, but the New York City Department of Sanitation recently determined that EPS foam food containers cannot be recycled in a manner that is economically feasible or environmentally effective for New York City. Global plastic production is projected to quadruple between 2014 and 2050. In addition–we cannot “recycle” our way out of this problem; we must find solutions to reduce plastic at the source.

Eliminating the production and consumption of single-use plastic products is an effective way to reduce plastic pollution and combat this global crisis. After the California cities of Santa Cruz and Pacific Grove banned EPS foam food containers, EPS litter on local beaches decreased by as much as 71 percent. And it’s possible to replace many EPS food containers with a cheaper alternative.

Virginians’ health, communities, and natural areas are under siege from plastics. Plastics are now found in our air, water, and soil. Recycling has been overwhelmingly shown to not be a feasible solution. We need to enact efficient waste reduction policies and encourage businesses as well as Virginians to reduce waste generation to protect Virginia residents, communities, and our environment from the scourge of plastic litter.

There are a few other bills we are tracking and we’ll send out an update about those soon, but this email is an action alert! HB 1902 will be heard tomorrow afternoon after the general session, let’s get this important bill across the finish line!

Full Bill Text

HB 1902 Expanded polystyrene food service containers; prohibition; civil penalty. Prohibits the dispensing by a food vendor of prepared food to a customer in a single-use expanded polystyrene food service container, as defined in the bill. The bill requires certain chain restaurants to stop using such containers by July 1, 2023, and sets the date for compliance by all food vendors as July 1, 2025. The bill exempts nonprofit organizations from the definition of “food vendor” and provides a process by which a locality may grant consecutive one-year exemptions to individual food vendors on the basis of undue economic hardship. The bill provides a civil penalty of not more than $50 for each day of violation, to be collected in a civil action brought by the Attorney General or the relevant locality. The penalties collected are to be deposited in the Litter Control and Recycling Fund or to the treasury of the relevant locality, as appropriate. A portion of the penalties deposited in the Fund are to be used for public information campaigns to discourage the sale and use of expanded polystyrene products. Finally, the bill directs the Department of Environmental Quality to post to its website information on compliance and the filing of complaints. This bill is a reenactment of Chapter 1104 of the Acts of Assembly of 2020.