To put on everyone’s radar, we are feeling hopeful we’ll be able to have our Earth Daze event at Aslin in Herndon on the 24th of April to Celebrate Earth and Arbor Days, so Save the Date!    

Expanded Polystyrene foam and plastic bottles in a Fairfax County creek. Photo Credit: Clean Fairfax

Virginia General Assembly: The Virginia General Assembly started yesterday (1/13) and important bills are moving quickly.

Yesterday was the first step towards ensuring expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and beverage service containers are banned. The House Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee held the first vote on House Bill 2092 and the bill passed out of the committee with a 15 Yes – 7 No vote! If you have a minute, let our elected officials know you appreciate them standing up for Virginia’s environment!

Tomorrow, House Bill 2042, which gives localities the ability to increase the mandated percentage of tree cover that must be replaced or conserved during development will be heard in the House Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee. Tree cover is important on so many levels: it helps improve water quality, provides natural habitat, reduces erosion, mitigates flooding, reduces heat-island effect, acts as natural traffic calming, raises property values, and improves quality of life. Virginia loses over 16,000 acres of trees every year, and this bill could help reduce the accelerating loss of greenspaces across the Commonwealth. You can read a great one page write up about the importance of expanding tree coverage in Virginia on the Virginia Conservation Network website here! If your delegate is a member of the House Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee this is a great time to let them know you support increasing tree cover! Contact information for committee members is available through the House Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee links. 

Plant NOVA Natives: Sticking with the theme of the need to expand green space, we wanted to share some information about a local group doing great work. Plant NOVA Natives has been providing a series of workshops with some more coming up! They have hosted a series of videoconferences called “Ask an Expert” where local experts have helped people create flourishing native plant ecosystems! They have compiled the video series on a YouTube playlist you can check out here. And for more great native plant information read their latest newsletter here!

Bioplastics and Greenwashing: We’ve written about why “biodegradable” plastics are not the answer to the plastic crisis- switching from one type of plastic to another will not solve our problems, it’s purely greenwashing (marketing a product to make it seem environmentally friendly). The most glaring problem with biodegradable plastic is that they require industrial facilities to compost. You can’t put them in your backyard composter to use on your home garden. China recently announced a plan to eliminate single use plastics by 2025, but their plan has some serious shortcomings.

Glad’s most recent attempt to greenwash their products. Screenshot from Instagram.

China is planning on substituting traditional plastics with “biodegradable” plastic. In the last year, Chinese companies have increased their ability to produce “biodegradable” by over 4 million tons every year. This expansion of production facilities has not been combined with building the infrastructure necessary to handle increased production. When dealing with any kind of plastic, remember the 4 Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Read the entire story about why switching to “biodegradable” plastics is not a feasible option here. Recently Glad released their new “green” sandwich bags made of 50% plant based material. These bags cannot be recycled, they are not biodegradable, they will sit in landfills just like every other plastic bag. Labeling these bags as “green” is a perfect example of greenwashing- the product is being falsely marketed as an environmentally friendly alternative. 

PPE Waste Problems: Masks are good; we wear them and encourage everyone to follow CDC guidelines, just make sure they don’t end up as litter. Improperly disposed masks are clogging storm drains and harming wildlife. In 2020 over 1.5 billion masks made their way into the ocean. Face masks are a necessity and reusables ones are great. Here’s a story about the increased prevalence of masks in natural environments. Reusable masks are great, we’ve made some with old t-shirts and we’ve purchased some from local businesses that have had to pivot during the pandemic- there are always other options than single use items!

McDonald’s to Remove Toxic Chemicals from Packaging: There is a lot of excitement that McDonald’s has announced they will eliminate toxic chemicals (PFAS- Perfluorooctanoic acid) from their food packaging materials by 2025. You read that correctly, the largest food chain in the world has toxic chemicals in their packaging. They aren’t alone,  PFAS is in everything from clothing to pots and pans, even food packaging. PFAS chemicals damage the immune system and have been linked to a litany of cancer and neurological problems. PFAS impacts groundwater and is extremely difficult to clean up when it reaches the environment. There are a few bills in Virginia that aim to reduce PFAS impact in the state, and it is always helpful to let your elected officials know you are concerned about the spread of this toxic chemical. For some more information about PFAS you can read the full story about PFAS in food packaging here.