With so much going on around the world we wanted to give you a midweek news roundup! (Plus we would like not all our posts to get lost at Facebook!) 

Virginia has joined Maryland, Delaware, and DC in suing the EPA, stating that the EPA has not held other Chesapeake Watershed states accountable for their pollution. New York and Pennsylvania have not developed or implemented plans that will achieve the necessary pollutant reductions. A healthy Chesapeake Bay Watershed has an economic value of $129.7 billion to the region. Read the full article here.

The fossil fuel industry, led by the American Chemistry Council, has asked the federal government to pressure Kenya to reduce the country’s restrictions on plastic waste. In 2017 Kenya instituted the world’s strictest ban on the use, manufacturing and importing of plastic bags. The American Chemistry Council stated, “We anticipate that Kenya could serve in the future as a hub for supplying U.S.-made chemicals and plastics to other markets in Africa”. This will enable the proliferation of plastic production and continue to harm the most vulnerable communities in the US and globally. The American Chemistry Council has been a regular fixture in Virginia, they are one of the leading opponents fighting to stop Virginia’s ban on expanded polystyrene food and beverage service containers. Read the full article here.

(AP Photo, Ben Curtis, File)

Plastic packaging, specifically candy wrappers and chip bags, are the most commonly found beach trash. During the 34 years volunteers and researchers have catalogued waste found during beach clean ups, cigarette butts have always been the most common beach trash found, until 2019. Cigarette butts not being at the top of the list isn’t because of a drastic decrease in smoking around the globe, wrappers are the most common beach trash found because the amount of plastic packaging that is produced increases every year. In our local Fairfax County stream monitoring, plastic packaging has been the most common stream based trash we have found for the last three and a half years. Read the full story about plastic beach trash here.  

The summer growing season is coming to an end, but you can extend your growing season by planting cool weather crops! Some great fall crops are lettuces, kale, beets, turnips, spinach, and mustard greens. Your fall garden will require a little extra work- till the soil as the old plants are pulled out to aerate the soil, and you might have to add some soil amendments to give your soil the correct texture and composition. Read all the great tips here! 

(Photo attributed to referenced article)

Every month the world is using 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves and there has been a 300% increase in single use plastic consumption. The increase in single use plastic consumption is the fossil fuel industry’s plan to maintain demand for their polluting products. By 2030 plastic will be the number one driver of oil demand. There is hope to build back sustainably. Single use plastics do not have to be the norm, a circular economy is possible. Read the entire story here.

(Photo attributed to referenced article)

As we all try to stay safe, employed, and alive during the COVID-19 pandemic, the plastics industry has seen the pandemic as a sweet opportunity to negate important policies that limit the spread of single use plastics into our communities and waterways.

On the federal level, The Plastics Industry Association has pressured the Department of Health and Human Services to publicly support single use plastics by declaring that plastic is safer than consumers’ own bags, without any evidence backing up that claim. And the very newly formed (so new they don’t even have a website) lobbying group- The Virginia Food Industry Association-has asked Governor Northam this week to veto the plastic bag fee bill recently approved by the Virginia Legislature. Single use plastic bag legislation has been debated at the Virginia General Assembly for over a decade while those of us doing the actual work pulling them out of storm drains, creeks, trees, and rivers has gone on much longer. This is a time sensitive issue, Governor Northam must sign or veto the plastic bag fee bill (SB 11) by Saturday April, 11 at 11:59 pm.

Localities would not have the authority to enact a single use bag fee before January 2021. The locality must also provide a certified copy of the new ordinance to the Tax Commissioner at least 3 months prior to the fee being enacted. There will be no plastic bag user fee in Virginia in 2020 which means the Commonwealth will not see any bag fees until well into 2021. And this is not a bag BAN! Even if this bill went into effect May 1, plastic bags would still be available to those who wanted them. Vetoing these bills now does nothing to protect human health during the pandemic. It is nothing more than a ploy by the plastic industry to continue to bolster their profits while citizens are left to continue deal with the problems industry has created.

There are several studies that proponents of single use plastic bags (also known as manufacturers) cite for their claim that reusable bags can be a reliable carrier of COVID-19. None of these studies, however, support those opportunistic claims. In 2010, the American Chemistry Council (a plastics lobbying group) funded a study at the University of Arizona. This study analyzed 84 bags with the claim, “Large numbers of bacteria were found in almost all bags and coliform bacteria in half.” What they leave out when citing this study is that the bags didn’t contain any bacteria or E. Coli that will actually make a person sick. The senior staff scientist at Consumers Union said, “A person eating an average bag of salad greens gets more exposure to these bacteria than if they had licked the insides of the dirtiest bag from this study.” A study from last year looked at 30 plastic reusable bags and found coliform bacteria on half the bags and E. coli on a few of the bags. The bags in this study had food in them and the bags were not washed or sanitized, so it is not a surprise that bacteria was found because the study did not eliminate the opportunity of cross contamination.

In 2018, researchers sprayed a fake norovirus on reusable shopping totes and then tested every surface the person touched during their time in the grocery store. Shocker, researchers found traces of the fake virus on the surfaces the person touched, with the highest concentrations on the shopper’s hands, the checkout stand, and the clerk’s hands. What this study highlights (Spoiler Alert!) is the importance of handwashing and hygiene.

The most recent study focused on how long coronavirus can survive on hard surfaces has shown that the virus can survive on plastic for up to three days in laboratory settings. That means the virus can survive on single use plastic bags or reusable nonwoven polypropylene bags for three days. Your non-plastic (cloth) reusable bags can and should be washed after every use, and reusable bags made from plastic (coated) should be disinfected after every use outside your home.

The Food Industry Association (the national arm of the Virgina Food Industry Association) has been circulating documents filled with outright lies. This quote, “The COVID-19 virus is just one of many pathogens that shoppers can spread unless they wash the bags regularly, which few people bother to do. Viruses and bacteria can survive in the tote bags up to nine days, according to one study of coronaviruses” is in one of their few public documents. When you read the study they cite (read here), the study did not include COVID-19 and makes no mention of any kind of bags. It does say that if COVID-19 acts similar to its cousin we can expect it to stay on surfaces, “such as metal, glass, or plastic for as long as nine days”. If they were truly worried about the safety of grocery store employees they would be focused on providing their employees with protective gear and requiring customers to bag their own groceries to limit human contact.

If public health was their main concern they would make their information available to the public and not just high paying corporations with a long existing adversarial relationship with environmental health. If you’re interested, we encourage you to try to read any of their position papers on single-use plastic bags, paid leave legislation, or tobacco sales, here is the link to their website. Before you go there, we’ll let you know that you can’t read their position papers (except COVID-19 related papers) without an active paid membership to their organization.

Evidence of industry efforts to profit off the pandemic can be found on their industry funded website used to disseminate false information about the supposed benefits of plastic bags. At www.bagtheban.com they began their fear mongering regarding the coronavirus on February 21^st sharing an article titled, “Could the coronavirus in China cause a shortage of reusable bags? Experts say it’s Possible” On February 28^th they shared an article calling for New York’s bag ban to be delayed because of fears over spreading coronavirus. Governor Cuomo of New York delayed the bag ban until May and New York is the epicenter of coronavirus in the US. This stream of articles has continued almost daily to flood the public with misleading statistics and factual inaccuracies.

Our neighbors in Washington, D.C. have taken a different approach. Rather than banning reusable bags, they explicitly allow reusable bags to continue to be used, recommend people bag their own groceries regardless of the type of bag they use to limit contact between customers and employees, and have also temporarily lifted the $.05 user fee. Our colleagues at Surfrider have provided some excellent tips for using reusable bags during the pandemic;  you can find the full list here. If you bring your own bags, bag your own groceries- keep grocery store employees safe by minimizing physical contact.

We hear a lot of talk from the industry about how “single use plastic bags are necessary to protect grocery store employees.” We are HUGE fans of those who are working at grocery stores right now while we are able to work from home and pound out angry letters about things like this —THEY ARE THE HEROES who are making an average of $11.54 an hour,  and most don’t even have health insurance or paid sick leave.  And, we believe that grocery store employees should be classified as “frontline workers” which would give them even more protections in the workplace. However, the grocery industry doesn’t appear to be interested in THAT level of care of their employees. At a time when grocery store profits are soaring through the roof, these billion-dollar industries should be using their resources to promote their workers’ continued protection and care, rather continuing the endless fight against cleaner communities.

In Virginia, as in almost every state, grocery stores are essential businesses during this time, but, their employees are not designated as “frontline workers”, and in fact 98% of employees in places like Walmart and Giant and Target and Costco are not even eligible for the Families First Emergency Response Program enacted on March 18^th. The United Food & Commercial Workers 400 union is pushing to have grocery store, pharmacy, and food production workers classified as frontline workers during the pandemic. The Virginia Food Industry needs to get busy advocating to have their members designated as frontline workers, giving them access to PPE and free child-care during the pandemic. It seems that would be a much better use for their lobbying efforts than trying to roll back a law that doesn’t even go into effect for 9 months, and even then, would need to be enacted by each county and who knows when THAT will happen, if ever.

Now is not the time to backslide on environmental policies that protect the health of all Virginians. We need to take our health advice from medical professionals, not from industries that have a proven 60-year track record of concealing the damaging impacts of their industry. Now is not the time to allow the petrochemical industry to dictate the best health practices.

We urge the Governor to not waiver when he sets his pen to SB 11/HB 534, go ahead and sign it and if this is still an issue in January of next year, let’s revisit it. We’ll be the first ones in line to help work out a solution we can all literally live with.

Contact your elected officials and let them know you stand for healthier and cleaner communities!

Senator Ebbin has fought for a decade for plastic bag legislation, let his office know you are still behind his efforts! district30@senate.virginia.gov (571)-384-8957

Delegate Lopez was a champion for plastic and litter legislation at the General Assembly, let him know these issues are still important to you! DelALopez@house.virginia.gov. (571) 336-2147

Contact the Speak of the House, Eileen Filler-Corn so she knows these are issues Virginians are concerned with. DelEFiller-Corn@house.virginia.gov  (571) 249-3453

Matt Strickler, the Secretary of Natural Resources can be contacted through email- Natural.Resources@governor.virginia.gov

Contact the Governor’s office through their constituent services portal here and give them a call at 804-786-0000

Let the Lieutenant Governor’s office know you want the plastic bag fee bill to be signed into law! ltgov@ltgov.virginia.gov  (804) 786-2078

Contact YOUR elected officials using this link provided by Virginia Grassroots.

-Jen and Zach

Farmers Markets Are Essential! Please support Virginia’s farmers by sending this letter to the governor asking them to reclassify farmers markets.

During a pandemic, or other disaster, state and local governments often make determinations for classifications of various services and can create specific rules that apply to industries like food service. For the purposes of the current COVID-19 response, Governor Northam has classified Farmers markets as restaurants. This classification limits the public’s access to a critical service. Farmers markets in Virginia provide access to food and should instead be classified as grocery stores, thus allowing operations to continue during emergencies.

Farmers markets provide low-income families with nutritious food and offer fresh produce in food deserts. In 2018, $172,225 in SNAP benefits were spent at 70 Virginia farmers markets, and 60% of farmers market shoppers in low-income neighborhoods say that their market has better prices than grocery stores. According to the USDA, farmers who sell at farmers markets are more likely to stay in business than those that don’t. We need farmers!

Open-air markets are important and necessary food outlets for community members from all economic backgrounds across the DC metro area to purchase healthy, fresh, nutritious food. Farmers markets are essential to the livelihood of farmers and food producers. Shopping at farmers markets means you are supporting your local economy, which is especially critical in this time of uncertainty.

In addition to all of the information in this blog post, Our friends at the Virginia Farmers Market Association have prepared an expansive list of what customers and vendors can do to protect themselves during the Covid-19 pandemic, you can find that link here.

Thank you for your help and stay safe!

– Jen and Zach

Are you looking for a way serve your community and get outside? This Saturday we’ll be on Upper Long Branch in Bailey’s Crossroads hosting our final sponsored community clean up of the calendar year. This is a great opportunity for kids that need community service hours for school or anyone who wants to improve the health of our watershed!

Upper Long Branch flows into Four Mile Run which is a tributary of the Potomac. If the plastic and other litter is left there it will make its way to the Chesapeake Bay and ultimately the Atlantic Ocean.

The clean up will go from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and we’ll meet at the end of Magnolia Ave. in Falls Church. The easiest way to find it is to put the intersection of Glen Carlyn Rd. and Magnolia Ave. into your GPS and then follow Magnolia down until the end and park on the side of the street. (There are some screenshots of the map at the bottom of this post.)

Upper Long Branch is a rocky, shallow creek so hard rubber boots that can get wet and muddy are highly recommended! We’ll provide all the clean up supplies- bags, gloves, and some trash grabbers. Please bring your own reusable water bottle, we will have a water jug on hand for refills!

If you have question about the clean up please email cfc@cleanfairfax.org. We are looking forward to seeing everyone Saturday morning!

We want to call attention to a number of exciting opportunities and requests related to litter clean up throughout the greater Fairfax community:

• Are you looking to join an organized clean up? Clean Fairfax is hosting a community stream clean up in Bailey’s Crossroads on November 9^th. If you’re interested in volunteering for the day please let us know! We’ll release the exact location when we get closer to the date. I grew up in Bailey’s and this clean up is particularly important to me. This creek is where my friends and I would explore and where our appreciation of the natural world was fostered as kids. The wildlife has largely disappeared and has been replaced by litter. Come out and help us bring wildlife back to Bailey’s Crossroads creeks! This is the last Clean Fairfax sponsored clean up of the calendar year so get your community service hours in for school now!

• Have you noticed a recurring litter hotspot in your neighborhood? We want to help your community find permanent solutions. We will help you find the sources of the litter and develop strategies your community can implement to solve the problem.

• Do you want to host your own community clean up? Supporting county-wide cleanups by individuals, groups, schools, churches, and businesses is one of the most important aspects of our work. Go to https://cleanfairfax.orgprograms-events/community-clean-up-program/ and fill out the form and we’ll give you all the supplies you’ll need for free! All you need to do to schedule your own clean up is find your own clean up location, pick a day, gather a few volunteers, and let us know of your plans. In selecting the site for your clean up we recommend going about a mile each direction from your home, work, school, or church. The supplies include 30-gallon trash bags, gloves, clear bags for recyclables (upon request), safety vests (upon request), safety tips, and any other supplies that we might have to support the cleanup. Please try to give us 10 business days to get your supplies to you.

And finally, if you want to document litter you find when out and about around Fairfax County or across Virginia, share your pictures on social media using #litterfreeva. Sharing pictures with this hashtag helps us track litter throughout the county and across the Commonwealth.

As the weather begins to cool and you’re looking for some late season paddling, camping, or hiking to see the leaves changing colors, a little upfront planning can make your trip both zero waste and lots of fun. I spend a lot of time looking for adventure while paddling on the Potomac or walking Shenandoah with my dog and know how quickly a day can be ruined by coming across a stash of plastic bags or food wrappers. Natural spaces are a shared resource and we should all look to protect them, utilizing Leave no Trace principles. In that spirit, I’m going to share a few tips, tricks, and products I’ve used over the years to minimize my impact when I venture into the outdoors.

Planning Ahead
Planning ahead is critical to a zero waste adventure. When I’m getting ready for a day outside, my planning doesn’t just include figuring out where I’m going and getting my gear ready. The process includes being methodical about how I’m going to pack my food and water for the day. My goal when I leave my apartment is to not stop until I reach my destination so that means no stops for snacks or coffee at a gas station or roadside market that often rely on non-compostable material. Preparing all of my food the night before leaves more time for fun on the day of, and it also enables me to not bring any single use items out into the woods.

Food Storage
I start the day by making my coffee and putting it in my reusable mug which keeps the coffee hot longer and helps avoid a mid-drive pit stop. After the coffee is ready, I pull all of the food I prepared the night before out of the fridge and put it in my pack. My adventure lunch always contains at least one peanut butter and jelly sandwich, trail mix, and some fruit. To avoid single use plastic, I use a silicone option instead. There are a lot of brands out there and I use Stasher Bags to carry everything! Stasher bags are great for every day use – not just for weekend warriors! One Silicone Stasher Bag can eliminate hundreds of Ziploc bags from a waste stream.

Water
Anytime I go into the woods I have to bring enough water for myself and my dog, and we both have way more fun when we’re hydrated. My adventure days, just like my work days, start by filling up my 64 ounce Hydroflask water bottle. When we’re out on a hike, the big bottle stays in the car and then we have nice cold water for our trip home. I carry two 32 ounce Hydroflasks in my day pack so Buddy and I are always well hydrated. If I’m in my kayak, the 64 ounce bottle comes along for the ride and stays cold even in the sun.

We may leave many of the conveniences of home behind when we head out looking for adventure, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be conscious of the impact single use plastic can have on the outdoors. A little bit of planning can keep you and your four legged companions well fed and hydrated without leaving behind litter for other outdoor enthusiasts to find.

We recently met the outreach coordinator of a local foodbank and she wanted to know how she could help her foodbank lower their environmental footprint. She invited us out to see the foodbank and the first thing we noticed was the incredible work they are doing for their community. They provide food and household products which can’t be purchased with food stamps to food insecure families every month. Their foodbank is set up like a grocery store allowing customers to shop as they would in a grocery store. During the previous month alone, the foodbank distributed 3,047 plastic bags to hold the products they make available to community members. We immediately realized the significant opportunity this provided us to make a lasting difference in the community and set out to find an alternative.

To provide families with a strong, viable alternative that allowed them to participate in the broader waste reduction movement, we bought the foodbank 3,000 reusable shopping bags, with a simple message on the bags, “Fill Me Up, Bring Me Back, I’m Reusable!”. The foodbank is going to keep track of how many bags are brought back every month, and our hope is to see at least half of the bags make repeat appearances at the facility. If 1,500 of these bags come back every month, that would equate to a total of 18,000 single use plastic bags that do not go into circulation over the course of a twelve-month period. Our goal is to minimize single use plastic and we are excited to have enthusiastic partners embark with us on this pilot program.

Clean Fairfax strives to support clean water in Fairfax County through various programs such as our Clean Streams Initiative and our Farmers Market sustainability initiative. People often ask us, “what can we do to help?” This holiday season, we’re recommending two ways in which you can give back to the community and support clean water too!

1. Sign this petition, which calls for residents to let the EPA know that we support the Clean Water Act in all its glory! This petition is coordinated by the Choose Clean Water Coalition, a group of conservation non-profits that have banded together to make our voices heard!
2. Check out Litter Free Virginia, which is a coalition of organizations and people that are interested in litter legislation in that state of Virginia. Click on this blog post to learn more!

You’ll see plenty of buying guides in the next month. We encourage you to shop thoughtfully, considering where things come from and how they get to you. We do not get any benefit from you shopping from this list. These are simply ideas we have and products we use and like. If you’re a local business with sustainable gifts, email us and we might add you to this list!

Above all, we hope your holidays (however you define them) are full of all the things you value—friends, family, food, and fun.

The Gift of Time
One of the best gifts you can give—yourself. If you have an elderly parent, relative, neighbor or friend, they don’t want more STUFF. They would love it if you came over more often to play a board game or to chat over tea. Or perhaps to help clean out their garage, to rake and compost their leaves, or to plant their garden for them in the springtime. Or maybe there’s a young family on the block with kids who would love to learn to bake, or make a bird house or grow tomatoes. When you give the gift of yourself, it is two gifts—one for them, and one for you!

Secondhand Books
Used books have a kind of mystique to them that people love! If it’s secondhand, it’s intriguing to wonder where the book has traveled, who originally bought it and with what purpose. If it’s from your own collection, add a note about what it means to you. We especially encourage circular economies like this — buy from a local used bookstore, or if this isn’t possible, Amazon sells used versions of all books. We should also note that most used bookstores have gift cards as well!

Soap Nuts & Dryer Balls
Interesting names…. great products! Soap nuts are natural and reusable laundry soap. They really do work. Dryer balls, made from 100% wool, replace dryer sheets (which are coated with chemicals and are typically made from plastic microfibers.) A few drops of essential oil (all-natural, high quality) will allow the dryer balls to act as a fabric refresher too, if that’s important to you!

Support Local Farms
Want to support local food production? Whitehall Farms, in Clifton, sells CSA shares and local products at its on-site market. We also highly suggest you visit!

Reusable Produce Bags
Reusable produce bags are a good way to decrease plastic bag usage from your weekly shopping trips. As you well know, we aren’t big fans of plastic.

The Gift of Good Health
Fairfax County Rec Centers have many locations near you and they would love for you to give a gift certificate for a membership or classes.

Meal Subscriptions
Although we’re highly skeptical of meal subscriptions, Sunbasket rises above the rest. Sunbasket has many food options, their meals are certified organic and they pack all items in 100% sustainable packaging that is recyclable and/or compostable. If you have a friend or a sibling who just works/commutes TOO MUCH and you worry that they aren’t eating well, consider a Sunbasket membership.

Mighty Nest
For $12 a month, you can get a new sustainable, environmentally conscientious product to try. Items in the past have included beeswax wrap to replace plastic wrap, silicone toppers (again to replace plastic wrap), reusable sandwich bags, all-natural laundry soap, stainless steel bento boxes, refillable dental floss in a glass tube and more. All items come with minimal paper packaging and no plastic. They also have a good selection of healthy home products to help get you to zero waste.

Seabags
Seabags is a company out of Maine that makes bags and totes that are made from old sailboat sails. They have a shop in Annapolis if you want to go see them in person. The bucket bags are a favorite and are perfect project bags for knitting, or lunch, or shower caddy!

Adapted from Sustainable DC’s wonderful newsletter

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, meal planning and preparation is in full swing. You’ve spent the entire year cutting down on plastic, eating less meat, and conserving water — and now Thanksgiving presents a great opportunity to put another feather in your sustainability cap. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Americans discarded an equivalent of over 6 million turkeys last year. That figure doesn’t include all the stuffing and mashed potatoes that might end up going bad in the back of your refrigerator days after the feast.

While Thanksgiving is a time to indulge (or to run a local turkey trot), it’s also important to be thoughtful about the amount of food needed for the meal and leftovers. Being mindful of how much food you’re making doesn’t have to cut into your holiday traditions. With a little advance planning and a few Turkey Day tactics under your apron, here’s how you can have your turkey and eat it too, all while still avoiding food waste.

Determine how much of each ingredient you really need

Before heading to the grocery store, make a list of the items you need and do your best to stick to it. Along with cutting down on food waste, you’ll also save money. A typical four-person family in the U.S. wastes $1,500 each year on food they end up throwing away.  A nifty new tool from nonprofit Save the Food, called the “Guest-imator,” can help you save time and money on groceries.

No turkey, no problem!

We know it might be a tradition, but if not all of your guests are into turkey this year, that’s ok. You might choose to bypass the turkey and still have a main dish everyone will eat! Vegetarian lasagna and sustainably-sourced fish are excellent alternatives.

The dish no one eats…let’s skip it

Let’s be honest with ourselves and take an inventory of what family members actually want to eat, not what has become tradition. If you tend to make a dish solely because it’s an annual tradition, consider making a smaller portion or cutting it out entirely this year.

Send guests home with (reusable) care packages

No matter how carefully you plan your feast, avoiding the faux-pas of serving too little food means you’re going to have at least a few leftovers. Don’t let them sit in the fridge too long. Make sure you’ve got a game plan and consider sending leftovers home in reusable containers with your guests.

Compost!

Remember to compost meatless leftovers (or leftovers with meat if you have access to industrial composting facilities… not exactly FFX’s strength).