For those of you who have been following our blog, we write a lot about how the fossil fuel industry attempts to greenwash their products to trap communities into a future surrounded by fossil fuels. This push is coming to Virginia in the form of chemical conversion facilities, referred to by the fossil fuel industry as “chemical recycling” or “advanced recycling”. This is a greenwashed way of saying they are going to melt plastic which will then be burned for dirty energy or to make more plastics. Most of these technologies are still in the lab or pilot phase and none have demonstrated they are environmentally safe or economically sustainable, but Virginia is close to deciding they want to lock Virginia into a fossil fuel future. 

Right now, the  House is debating HB 2173, which would change the definition of “advanced recycling” (chemical conversion) from solid waste management to manufacturing. This bill has a companion in the senate (SB 1164) waiting to be heard in the Senate Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources committee and while we’re not exactly sure when this bill will be heard, you can preemptively let your senator know how much you hate it! They thought they could sneak this through by making it a simple semantics issue–a change of definition that seems so green!

HB 2173 and SB 1164 are backed by the largest polluting petrochemical companies in the world- Exxon, Shell, Dow, BASF- to create facilities that will introduce a new stream of toxic waste into Virginia. It would enable harmful, polluting facilities to get a toe-hold in Virginia with the most severe impacts placed on the most vulnerable populations in low income counties. Chemical Conversion is not economically or environmentally sustainable and this bill is being used to kill HB1902 to ban expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and beverage containers. The solution to the plastic pollution crisis is reducing waste at its source, not dangerous downstream approaches.

HB 2173 and SB 1164 would exempt chemical conversion facilities from the Virginia Waste Management Act, which means they would not need to apply for a solid waste permit, streamlining their construction. This means that while it takes some doing to put say, a landfill, in your neighborhood, it would be a heck of a lot easier to put THIS in your neighborhood and this is a lot more dangerous to your health! 

Here is how you can help stop this today!

Contact YOUR elected delegate today, this weekend- whenever you can, contact them in multiple ways- call, email, Twitter, and Facebook- before we turn Virginia into a series of cancer clusters. This bill made it through the subcommittee and committee in one day and has already had two readings on the floor. The Monday (1/25) session is our chance to have this bill removed from consideration. There are opposition talking points attached here. Use these talking points to create your individualized message. There’s a sample email and couple sample Tweets at the bottom of this blog.

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. 

Because this bill has been pushed through with the backing of the most powerful and polluting petrochemical companies in the world, we’ve been left with serious questions that are yet to be answered. These are great questions to ask you elected officials!

1. What does this definitional change do? And why is it necessary? Will this change enable chemical conversion facilities more access to economic development grants and reduce their environmental oversights?
2. What makes this different from other chemical processing plants?
3. Why is it needed if chemical conversion is already here? There is a chemical conversion facility being built in Cumberland County.
4. The company that owns the facility in Cumberland county has a contract for 20 years with an international packaging company therefore shipping plastics into Virginia to be chemically converted here. When will this facility ever accept household plastics? How does this help keep plastics out of Virginia’s environment?
5. Would these facilities be mandated to use plastic waste from Virginia?
6. Will this bill wipe out the hard fought HB1902 which will ban the use of expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and beverage containers? The American Chemistry Council appears to think that is the case.
7. Why would Virginia want to create new petrochemical fuel sources after passing the Virginia Clean Economy Act?

Chemical conversion is a polluting and carbon intensive process that is riddled with system failures and will make the plastic pollution and climate crisis worse. About 50% of the carbon content of waste plastics is typically lost as greenhouse gases during chemical conversion. 79% of waste to energy facilities (another term for plastic to fuel) are located in low-income and communities of color. These facilities expose residents to harmful particulates that cause cancer, respiratory illnesses, and neurological disorders.

Now we are down to the wire at the General Assembly with two bills that could seriously damage Virginia’s air and water quality, skirt regulatory and permit requirements for a chemical plant (because make no bones about it–that is what this is) with this seemingly innocuous definition bill with the word “recycling” in it. If this bill passes there is a real danger to have five more chemical conversion facilities built in Virginia.

Here are sample Tweets

“Please vote no on HB 2173, don’t sell Virginia’s future to the petrochemical industry. Protect vulnerable communities!”

“Would you put a chemical burning plant in Mosaic District? Then vote no on HB 2173 which is a sneaky way of allowing this sort of thing with minimal permitting”

Here is a sample email

“Good afternoon XXXX,

I am your constituent at (insert address). I am very concerned to see HB 2173 moving through the General Assembly with such ease. Virginians have worked extremely hard to ensure our future is not intertwined with fossil fuels. Enabling fossil fuel facilities to expand in Virginia is not only a danger to our air and water quality, fossil fuel facilities around the country disproportionately impact the most vulnerable communities” 

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.

Let’s start the New Year off with some good news!

Civilian Conservation Corps Makes a Return: The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) is one of our favorite conservation and economic development success stories. The CCC was part of FDR’s New Deal, it provided jobs for the conservation and development of natural resources in lands owned by federal, state, and local governments. If you’ve ever been in Shenandoah National Park or driven on the Blue Ridge Parkway, you can thank the CCC. 

Hawaii is using pandemic assistance funds to bring this program back! Hawaii has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country and this program is paying displaced workers and recent graduates a minimum of $15 an hour and in turn providing ecological and economic benefits. Workers are clearing invasive species and being trained for jobs in the emerging green economy. This program is in danger of losing funding, hopefully this program can continue to be a leading example of a sustainable future. Read the entire story here! 

Rockefeller Foundation Ditches Oil: In the early 1900s, Standard Oil controlled over 90% of all petroleum products in the US. This stranglehold on oil profits, enabled John D. Rockefeller to create the Rockefeller Foundation. This $5 billion philanthropic fund that has been built on oil announced that they will divest from fossil fuels. This is another strong signal to the fossil fuel industry that their dominance is coming to an end. Major banks have already made similar announcements, this is another positive step forward to a renewable future. Rajiv Shah, the Rockefeller Foundation president stated, “Burning fossil fuels is not necessary to sustain our economy and economic growth over the long run — and it’s detrimental to our climate future”. Our response to that is- YES. This announcement was only a couple weeks after New York State’s $226  billion pension fund will divest from fossil fuels. Read about this exciting development here!

Wild Iris Rescue in Louisiana: During the last three years, a dedicated group, the Louisiana Conservation Initiative, has planted over 20,000 Louisiana Irises and will plant another 8,500 this winter. Historically these irises were considered a nuisance, but habitat loss, natural disaster, and climate change has caused an entire generation in Louisiana to never see the wild iris bloom. Without these dedicated individuals completing difficult manual labor in Louisiana swamps, this native plant would be lost. Read the inspiring Louisiana Conservation Initiative here!

Biodiversity Good News: We all know that the actions of humans are having a negative impact on species around the world, and global biodiversity has suffered. At the end of last year, scientists released information about several new species. In a remote section of the Andes, scientists found 20 previously unknown species! The slideshow in this article is highly recommended, you can thank us later! 

2021 Virginia General Assembly: On January 13 the 2021 Virginia General Assembly will convene. This year is a short session, meaning it will only be 45 days and elected officials will have to work quickly to hear every bill. There are a few bills we’ll be tracking this year. Two of the bills are from last year- banning intentional balloon releases, and banning expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and beverage containers. As we do every year, we will be tracking all litter, plastic, solid waste, and recycling bills at the General Assembly at litterfreeva.org. You can get more information about Virginia’s litter issues, follow along with our legislation tracker and sign up for our newsletter that we send out about once a week during the General Assembly. We’ll let you know how bills are progressing and the steps you can take to become an active member of the democratic process!

The fight against Arctic Drilling: Let’s start December off with some good news- Every major bank has ruled out funding drilling for fossil fuels in the Arctic! The threat of Arctic drilling still exists, but this is definitely a victory that can be celebrated. Last week we shared a story about drilling lease auctions beginning in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge- those new drilling operations will be difficult to undertake without secured bank funding. Over the course of the last year banks have been pulling their support from the expensive and risky Arctic operations. This decision has not been purely environmental. Oil is selling for about $40 a barrel, if oil prices rise to about $80 a barrel, Arctic drilling could be back on the table. Read the ongoing saga of Arctic drilling here.

Clean Fairfax on a podcast: A couple weeks ago, our Executive Director, Jen Cole, was on Fairfax County’s EnviroPod Podcast. Jen was asked to provide her expertise on the podcast to speak about litter issues stemming from the pandemic and how changes in trash pick up and global recycling markets are impacting the environment. Jen speaks in depth about a topic we reference often, the importance of starting at the root of the problem- plastic producers need to be held responsible for the waste they create. She also shares some information on work being done in Fairfax County to reduce waste and some legislative opportunities coming at the 2021 Virginia General Assembly. Don’t miss Jen on the EnviroPod here!

Saving the Bees!: We are advocates for bees, one of us even has bee hives (solitary AND honey bees!)  in our backyard. Bees pollinate about 70 of the top 100 human food crops, which is about 90% of global nutritional needs. There are over 20,000 species of bees on the planet, many of which are struggling because of climate change, pesticide use, and habitat loss. To adequately protect bees, we need to know exactly where they live and their population densities in those regions. Researchers developed population density maps which they will be able to use to develop a better understanding of the threats facing bees and how the need to protect pollinators can be incorporated into analysis of ecosystem services. Read the entire story about mapping global bee populations here!

Patagonia refurbishes Old Town building: If you’re from Northern Virginia or have lived here for a long time, you’re familiar with the closed Old Town Theater on King Street in Alexandria. This theater has been a fixture in Old Town since 1915, after a few vacant years the theater has new tenants, Patagonia. While we aren’t fans of consumer culture, we do like it when companies take responsibility for the waste their products create and invests in communities throughout their supply chains. Products you buy from Patagonia can be traced throughout their entire supply chain and the company encourages customers to not buy new gear, they want you to repair it.                          

For those of you who don’t know, Patagonia will repair your old gear and clothing or you can use their resources to learn how to make repairs yourself! Patagonia released a statement about their new location, “We realize what it meant to see the theater close back in 2014, but we intend to keep a lot of its energy alive by providing a steady stream of events, films and presentations, as well as a gathering place to support environmental nonprofits working to defend clean water and air, protect wildlife and divest from dirty technologies. The stage remains a stage  with sound and lighting and the balcony a place to host  meetings and events.” Here’s the entire story about Patagonia coming to Old Town. 

Autonomous Trash Interceptors, Floating Roombas: A Dutch inventor has created The Ocean Cleanup where they are using autonomous interceptors to remove trash after it has entered rivers. Autonomous Interceptors are large anchored floating structures that use river currents to collect trash, kind of like a Roomba in your house. One of these autonomous interceptors can remove about 110,000 pounds of trash in one day. That sounds like a lot of trash, but will do little to reduce how much trash is entering global waterways. The first area one of these interceptors was placed was in Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia, 110,000 pounds is less than 10% of the trash entering Jakarta Bay every day. Cleaning up existing trash is important, but it will not stop the flow of trash into our waterways. Jakarta Bay receives up to 700 tons of trash daily, it is impossible to remove that amount from the water daily. This overwhelming flow of trash is not unique to Jakarta, it happens across the globe, which is why we need policies that will stop plastic waste at its source. The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act would prohibit domestic plastic waste from being exported to foreign countries that do not have adequate infrastructure. You can read about the Ocean Cleanup autonomous interceptors here, and you can read about why all the water Roombas in the world will not solve water based trash problems in Jakarta or anywhere else in the world here.

(Plastic caught in a Fairfax County stream. Photo credit: Clean Fairfax)

Plastic On the Ocean Floor: The other shortfall of surface trash interceptors is that it does nothing to collect plastic waste that has made its way to the ocean floor. There is 30 thirty times as much plastic waste on the ocean floor than at the surface, with an estimated total of 14 million tons permanently lost to the ocean floor. We cannot trap all of the plastic waste before it reaches the ocean, and what is not caught will be there forever. This is why we need legislative policies that stop plastic waste at its source, if we don’t turn off the tap we will not stop the plastic crisis. You can read the entire study about plastics trapped on the ocean floor here. 

Reality of Bioplastics: There is a lot of talk about biodegradable and bioplastic alternatives to single use plastics. When these labels are put onto products they mislead customers and prevent the necessary step of reducing consumption. One of the most common of these products is Corn based plastic, distinguished with “PLA” on the product. While they are not made of fossil fuels, they do not magically go away when they are done being used, these products require an industrial composting facility and will not break down in a landfill. These PLA products will not biodegrade in your backyard composting pile, and industrial composting facilities are few and far between. In Fairfax County we do not have an industrial composting facility. Paper bottles have been gaining popularity, if they were purely made of recyclable paper that would be a good thing, but these paper bottles are filled with plastic lining. It is technically possible to strip away the plastic layers, but it doesn’t happen. These bottles end up being incinerated or left sitting in landfills. New materials for plastic products will help reduce the global plastic crisis, but it is not the answer. Ending the single use-throwaway lifestyle is the solution to the plastic crisis. You can read a more in depth breakdown of plastic alternatives from the New York Times here.

(Photo: White plastic pellets, known as nurdles, pile up along the Mississippi River bank in Algiers Point on Aug. 17, 2020. Tristan Baurick, Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate)

Update On the Mississippi Plastic Pellet Spill: A few weeks ago we wrote about a plastic nurdle (tiny plastic pellets that are the building blocks of plastic products) spill in the Mississippi River. Clean up of this spill was delayed because officials couldn’t decide who was responsible for clean up. Ultimately the responsibility was given to CMA CGM Group, who waited three weeks to hire a clean up crew. A new federal bill has been introduced that would prohibit the release of waste products in the plastic production supply chain from being released into US waters, and it would leave no question as to who is responsible for cleaning up these spills, the company who was responsible for the safekeeping of the product. You can read more about the plastic nurdle spill and the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act here. 

Yesterday, along with constituents of Virginia’s 10th congressional district, we met virtually with a staffer from Congresswoman Wexton’s office to discuss the problems we all face everyday with plastic waste and the importance of the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act (BFFPPA). Today we thought we’d share some more information about why this bill is so important.

One of the reasons so much new plastic is being produced is because it is cheaper to create new plastic than it is to use recycled plastic. It is about 90% more expensive to make a plastic bottle with recycled material. The corporations producing these bottles are going to use the cheapest method possible. The BFFPPA would mandate that plastic bottles are manufactured with an increasing percentage of recycled content. This bill would also require a nationwide $0.10 beverage container program. In Virginia we recycle about 20% of our plastic bottles, the most efficient beverage container programs have recycling rates over 90%.

(Plastic waste in a Fairfax County stream. Photo Credit: Clean Fairfax)

The three largest plastic polluters in the world, Coca-Cola, Nestle, and PepsiCo have committed to spend a total of $215 million over the next seven years on recycling and waste clean up. In fiscal year 2019, Coca-Cola profited over $20 billion. One material recovery facility (recycling center) costs a minimum of $20 million, their combined investment can build ten recycling centers. We can’t stress this enough, we can not recycle ourselves out of the plastic crisis. These brands have made commitments to reduce the plastic waste, but none of these companies have invested enough money to accomplish their goals. Even if they do, plastic in the ocean will rise from 11 million tons today to almost 30 million tons in the next twenty years. 

In the next five years, the fossil fuel industry is planning to spend $400 billion to build plastic production facilities. There are two plastic facilities scheduled to come online in Virginia next year. The BFFPPA would  place a temporary moratorium on new plastic facilities. This would give the EPA the opportunity to update regulations ensuring these facilities are using the most efficient pollution mitigation technology.As the fossil fuel industry is spending $400 billion in plastic expansion, they are only spending a combined $2 billion on plastic waste reduction. The BFFPPA would require that plastic producers would be responsible for collecting and recycling the material they generate. These corporations must play an active role in cleaning up the mess they have created.

Half of all the plastic that is produced is intended to be used once. Products that last for hundreds of years should not be used once. The BFFPPA would phase out the most common polluting single use products including, single use plastic bags, expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and beverage containers, plastic stirrers, and plastic utensils. 

This piece from Reuters, The Plastic Pandemic, offers a detailed explanation of how the plastic waste problem became a crisis decades ago.

If you want to learn more about the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act there are great resources from The Surfrider Foundation and Oceana.

(Plastic waste in a Fairfax County stream. Photo credit: Clean Fairfax)

We have scheduled a meeting with Representative Jennifer Wexton’s (Virginia’s 10th district), environmental staffer. If Jennifer Wexton is your Congressional Representative, this is your chance to let her know you want her to support the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act! Our meeting is scheduled for October 7 at 3:30 pm on Zoom. Fill out this form to let us know you want to join!

If you’re reading this, you probably know plastic is pervasive in the environment and no amount of clean ups could ever remove what is already out there or the plastic waste that will come in the future. We’ve been talking a lot about the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act (BFFPPA), now it is time to act! While our focus is typically litter and waste issues in Virginia, the BFFPPA would establish a nationwide framework to provide permanent solutions for the plastic waste we struggle with everyday in Virginia. This piece of federal legislation would provide long term solutions for the waste and litter problems we are struggling with in the Commonwealth. 

The BFFPPA (H.R. 5845 and S. 3263) has been introduced thanks to the effort of our partners The Surfrider Foundation and Oceana. This act has 88 co-sponsors in the House and 10 co-sponsors in the Senate. Only two elected officials from Virginia have signed on as a co-sponsor, Representative Gerry Connolly, from Virginia’s 11th district was one of the early cosponsors of this bill, and Representative Elaine Luria, from Virginia’s 2nd district. 

Plastic waste is a problem throughout Fairfax County. At Clean Fairfax we spend our days in streams with plastic waste from Centreville to McLean and down to Alexandria, every waterway in the county is impacted by plastic pollution. In our stream monitoring work throughout Fairfax, over 60% of the litter we count and categorize is single use plastic. While Virginia is slow in enacting the policies necessary to end the plastic crisis, the BFFPPA provides the action necessary to stop the overwhelming flow of plastic waste into our communities and waterways.

The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act would provide permanent solutions for the plastic waste we struggle with everyday in Virginia. This act would: 

Information from Surfrider’s BFFPPA Bullet Point Summary.

1. Require product producers to take responsibility for collecting and recycling materials. This would encourage varying producers to cooperate through Producer Responsibility Organizations.
2. Require nationwide container refunds. This act will create a $0.10 national refund requirement for all beverage containers. There are only ten states with container refund bills, those states average a recycling rate of over 60%. States without a container refund bill, Virginia included, have bottle recycling rates of 20%.
3. Beginning in January, 2022 the most common polluting single use plastic items will be phased out. The items would include lightweight plastic carryout bags, food and drinkware made of expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam), plastic stirrers and plastic utensils, and straws would be available by request only.
4.  A nationwide fee for carryout plastic bags. 
5. Plastic beverage containers will have to use an increasing percentage of recycled content in their bottles.
6. The EPA will establish standard recycling and composting labels for products and receptacles to facilitate proper sorting and disposal.
7. This act would stop the US from sending plastic waste to developing countries that do not have the infrastructure to handle the waste, which is known to be a major contributor to ocean plastic pollution.
8. Temporarily pauses new plastic manufacturing facilities. This legislation would provide environmental agencies to investigate the cumulative impacts of new and expanded plastic-producing facilities on the air, water, climate, and communities before issuing new permits to increase plastic production. The legislation would also update EPA regulations to eliminate factory-produced plastic pollution in waterways and direct the EPA to update existing Clean Air and Clean Water Act emission and discharge standards to ensure that plastic-producing facilities integrate the latest technology to prevent further pollution.

Facebook Suspends Environmental Groups: Have you wondered why we’re giving you news this way instead of daily on Facebook? Facebook recently made an announcement about being, “committed to tackling climate misinformation” and then immediately suspended the accounts of environmental groups who are actively working to protect people and communities against climate change. The timing on these account suspensions could not have been worse. In May of 2019 several environmental groups were involved in an action against KKR & Co. an investment firm that is financing the Coastal GasLink pipeline. There was another online action against KKR & Co. planned for this month, the same environmental groups from the 2019 action were suspended the day before the latest planned action. Facebook is still filled with pages refuting climate science, pages that promote violence, and still allows polluting corporations to publish their greenwashed stories about how they help people and are concerned about climate change. Read the entire story about Facebook suspending Environmental organization’s accounts here. The Stop Hate for Profit campaign was started to hold social media companies accountable for hate on their platforms. The campaign goal is straightforward- stop valuing profits over hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism, and disinformation. Get all the news on Stop Hate for Profit here.

NYC Climate Week: On Monday we shared a story about BP’s personal “carbon footprint” campaign and after posting we read a quote from environmental reporter Emily Atkin, “I hope they noticed that British Petroleum would rather trigger climate despair in people who already care about the planet than examine their own responsibility”. This quote is especially pertinent right now because it is NYC Climate week. As part of Climate Week, major oil companies (including BP) have released their climate plans. Not a single one of these plans will keep global temperatures from reaching the 1.5° global warming limit. BP’s outlined plan is the most misleading because it leaves out the company’s partial ownership of Rosneft, a major Russian oil producer. Read the entire report about big oil’s climate plans here.

American Chemistry Council Greenwashing: Chemical recycling has been a hot button issue in Virginia for the last year, with a strong backing from the American Chemistry Council. If you remember, last year at the Virginia General Assembly, the House passed a phased ban on expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and beverage containers. This bill was delayed by the Senate because if the products were banned, chemical recycling facilities would not come to Virginia. It’s important to note here there were never any plans for a chemical recycling facility in Virginia, and there are still no plans to build one. This is where BP comes back into the story, our elected officials are depending on fossil fuel companies like BP to build these facilities, of which BP is building one in Houston for $25 million. This investment from BP is to bolster their profits by continuing the myth that the world can recycle all of the plastic they are creating. The plastic “recycled” with chemical recycling is mostly repurposed into fuel stock or to burn for energy, all of this is released back into the environment. Expanding chemical recycling facilities does nothing to stop the plastic crisis and contributes to environmental degradation and harms the most vulnerable communities. The solution to the plastic crisis is reducing waste at the source rather than expensive, inefficient processes at the end of the system. Read the entire story about the American Chemistry Council’s greenwashing attempts here.      

The Myth of Recycling: Recycling is definitely an important part of the plan to reduce waste and recover valuable materials, but our current system is broken. Plastic producers have no incentive to make a change because virgin material is cheaper than recycled plastic and recycled plastics can’t be used in the same manner repeatedly because plastics degrade everytime they are recycled. The plastics industry has acknowledged the global problem of plastic waste- their solution is chemical recycling, which as we know isn’t actually recycling, it’s just repurposing. Politico recently put out a great series titled, “The Recycling Myth” that has some great information about the problems with the global recycling system.

Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act: The problems we have highlighted have serious consequences, but there is a great solution to the plastic crisis in the US- The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act (BFFPPA). This act would require plastic producers to take responsibility for collecting and recycling materials. Recycling programs around the country are collapsing because localities do not have the funding. This act would force corporations, like BP who had $9.7 billion in profit for FY 2019, to cover the costs of waste management and clean up, rather than leaving it to cash strapped localities and volunteers to remove waste once it enters their community. The BFFPPA would require a nationwide bottle deposit program. Currently Virginia has a bottle recycling rate of about 20%, the ten states with bottle bills have an average bottle recycling rate of 60%. The most common polluting single use plastics would be phased out of production. The collective “we” have spent over a decade fighting for single use plastic bag legislation in Virginia, and we are still only part way there, this act would mandate a nationwide fee on single use carryout plastic bags. A fee for plastic bags has documented success around the country. This federal legislation would also put a temporary pause on new plastics facilities, stopping the construction of new facilities is critical to reduce plastic waste at the source. The only elected officials from Virginia who have signed on are Representative Luria and Representative Connolly. Read about this important federal bill here!  

Unnamed creek in Fairfax County. Photo credit Clean Fairfax.

The plastic crisis continues and the fossil fuel industry is doing their best to make sure it doesn’t stop. Here are a few stories to help keep you informed and a tip to make your garden more self sufficient!

Those of you who have been following us won’t be surprised by this- the fossil fuel industry has lied for decades about the feasibility of recycling plastics, selling this lie through consumer manipulation. The fossil fuel industry continues to push the narrative that we can recycle all of the plastic they are producing, expecting localities to foot the bill to clean up their mess. A single material recovery facility (recycling center) costs a minimum of $10 million to construct, and that does not take into account staffing or operating the facility, and investment the fossil fuel industry has repeatedly proven they will not fund. The answer to the plastic waste crisis will never be recycling, we must cut the problem off at the source! Listen to the NPR story here.

(Plastic waste being buried in an Oregon landfill, Lauran Sullivan, NPR)

The pandemic has had all of us ordering a lot more take out food, digital orders of food have increased 127% from the same time period in 2019. This has caused a drastic increase in plastic and expanded polystyrene being used by restaurants. Take out food doesn’t have to mean excess waste, there are a few restaurants in the DC area that are working to reduce the waste they send to customers. Jaleo is providing their takeout on metal pans that customers can return and get $10 off their next meal. Oyster-Oyster uses reusable and recyclable glass jars for takeout orders and doesn’t even use plastic wrap in their kitchen. Read about a food critic’s efforts to reduce his waste stream here.

(Katherine Frey/ The Washington Post)

There have been some images of glowing algal blooms in the Virginia section of the Chesapeake Bay, while these algal blooms may look interesting, they are definitely not a good thing. These algal blooms have been linked to shellfish mortalities in the Chesapeake. These specific types of algae have been found in the Gulf of Mexico where they have caused massive fish and shellfish kills. Researchers think this algae is becoming more common in the Chesapeake because water temperatures have been rising, creating conditions for the harmful algae to bloom. Read the full story from the Chesapeake Bay Magazine here.

(A dense bloom of the bioluminescent alga Alexandrium monilatum lit up the York River during August 2015. © Susan Maples/VIMS.)

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has faced rollbacks over the last few years at the request of fossil fuel lobbyists and corporate polluters. Lawmakers are asking for NEPA to be restored to protect people and the planet. NEPA was the first major environmental law in the US and ensures environmental implications for proposed projects are taken into consideration before construction begins. NEPA is a critical tool to address social justice because it gives the general public a voice to protect their land and water. Read the full report about NEPA rollbacks here.

Last week we helped you get your fall gardens started, so this week we thought we’d help you build a rain barrel to provide water for your garden! Fairfax County usually offers ‘build your own rain barrel workshops’, because of the pandemic they have had to put a pause on these workshops, but still provide a helpful sheet you can use to build your own rain barrel. Here’s the link to the rain barrel cheat sheet!

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