Plastic Pollution in Your Backyard!

Have you ever wondered what your county’s most polluted plastic product is? If you live in Fairfax County, plastic bags are the top litter offender! What’s more, plastic bags are 1) notoriously hard to recycle (1-3% recycled per year) and 2) millions of dollars in each state are spent cleaning up this litter.  Plastic bag fees have been shown as a successful measure in reducing this harmful litter in other communities, and are a proactive way of keeping plastic pollution out of our local waterways. In Virginia, momentum is building in response to Roanoke’s bag fee bill. To engage deeper with the cold, hard facts of plastic pollution in Virginia, check out Clean Virginia’s Waterways incredible resources.

Plastic Disaster, Afar!

Plastic “snow” recently overwhelmed Sri Lanka’s beaches after a week of raging flames. Poor packaging of fertilizer chemicals is suspected to have caused the explosion that has left Sri Lanka’s beaches covered in this snow, that is really potentially toxic plastic beads. Shipping containers on the MV X-Press Pearl, the ship in question, carried both fertilizer chemicals and 78 metric tons of plastic pellets (equal to ~9 garbage trucks) and led to the environmental disaster. Sri Lanka’s plastic pellet coated beaches are already wreaking havoc on the natural environment, causing fish kills and presenting challenges to beach crabs. Fishing and tourism make up an important part of Sri Lanka’s economy, and both will both be severely impacted by this environmental disaster.  Check out this article for more information on the fire caused by the explosion, the ship itself, and commentary from local conservation groups.