WE Are So Close To The End–one way or another!

SB 1164, the bill that will classify chemical conversion as a manufacturing process will be heard on Wednesday afternoon (2/17) by the House Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee. This bill will exempt polluting facilities from permits mandated for similar facilities under Virginia law. Waste processing facilities- incinerators, landfills, and waste transfer stations- are all regulated by the same Virginia laws. Chemical conversion facilities, which are essentially the same as a solid waste incinerator with just slightly different technology but all the same materials going in (solid waste in the form of plastic) should be no exception!

The chemical and plastics industries should not write our laws especially when they have a long track record of environmental terrorism! This bill does not and will not remove plastic pollution from waterways and communities because it does NOT take household plastic water and soda bottles from your recycling bin, or from our creeks and streams–instead it trucks in industrial plastic from container ships, increasing plastic production and creating a new fossil fuel source. You can read about this bill in more detail here.

Here is how you can help stop this today!

Contact YOUR elected state representative and tell them why you oppose allowing corporate polluters to influence our state’s laws. You can access a one page talking point document here.

Virginia Grassroots provides access to an excellent spreadsheet with all the contact information for Virginia’s elected officials. Follow this link to get their email address, phone number, Twitter handle, and Facebook page information. You can also provide written testimony for the committee hearing with this link!

If you have ten minutes, send the members of the House Agriculture Committee an email or give them a call and tell them to vote no on SB 1164. Tag members of the House Ag Committee in Tweets to keep the conversation public and spread awareness. Virginia will not be controlled by the plastics industry! The Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club has an excellent thread on Twitter (@vasierraclub) that you can help spread!

If you only have two minutes, our colleagues at Waterkeepers Chesapeake have provided a form to contact your elected officials about SB 1164. Take a couple minutes and fill out this form so your elected official knows you oppose SB 1164!

Here are some sample Tweets

“Please vote no on #SB1164, don’t sell Virginia’s future to the petrochemical industry. Protect vulnerable communities!”

“Would you put a chemical conversion facility in your district? Then vote no on #SB1164 which is a sneaky way of allowing this sort of thing with minimal permitting”

“Chemical Conversion should be regulated with the same standards as other solid waste management facilities in Virginia. Vote no on #SB1164”

“The solution to the plastic pollution crisis is reducing production, not creating a new source of plastic! Vote no on #SB1164”

Here is a sample email

“Good afternoon XXXX,
I am your constituent at (insert address). I oppose SB 1164 to classify chemical conversion as manufacturing. These facilities should be subject to the same regulations as every other solid waste disposal facility in Virginia. Virginians have worked extremely hard to ensure our future is not intertwined with fossil fuels. This bill does not and will not remove plastic pollution from waterways and communities, it increases plastic production and creates more waste. Reducing regulations for chemical conversion facilities in Virginia is not only a danger to our air and water quality, fossil fuel and chemical facilities around the country disproportionately impact the most vulnerable communities”

Written testimony can look something like this

“I strongly oppose SB 1164 because it will enable dangerous, polluting fossil fuel facilities to proliferate across Virginia. This bill does not and will not remove plastic pollution from waterways and communities, it actually increases plastic production and creates more waste. It enables harmful, polluting facilities to expand across Virginia with the most severe impacts placed on vulnerable populations with fewer restrictions and reporting requirements of a Landfill for similar.
Thank you to Delegate Plum for striking HB 2173 from the docket and we hope it is the will of the committee to oppose SB 1164 as well. Thank you.”