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

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.

The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore strives to create a cleaner and greener future. One of the ways they are accomplishing this is through their trusted friend Mr. Trash Wheel. The Inner Harbor Water Wheel, or “Mr. Trash Wheel,” utilizes old and new technologies to harness the power of water and sunlight to collect litter and debris flowing down the Jones Falls River. “The current of the river provides enough power to turn the wheel, which lifts the trash and debris from the water and deposits it into a dumpster barge. When there isn’t enough water current, a solar panel array provides additional power to keep the machine running. When the dumpster is full, it’s towed away by boat, and a new dumpster is put in place.” (Mr. Trash Wheel, 2018).

Mr. Trash Wheel is extremely popular and has a large following in the Baltimore area. With his personal Twitter account, Mr. Trash Wheel urges citizens to become a member of “The Order of the Wheel”, a secret society with the sole mission of freeing the world of trash. Mr. Trash Wheel allows the Waterfront Partnership to quantify the amount of trash flowing within the area, which makes it easier to show the extent of the pollution problem. Since the creation of Mr. Trash Wheel in 2014, he has picked up 638,262 plastic bottles, 9,391,600 cigarette butts, and 737,025 polystyrene containers. Mr. Trash Wheel has done wonders for the Baltimore community, and we can’t wait to see what else he will do.

Mr. Trash Wheel | Baltimore Waterfront. (n.d.). Retrieved April 23, 2018, from http://baltimorewaterfront.com/healthy-harbor/water-wheel/

In 2005, Richard Louv coined the phrase “Nature Deficit Disorder” in his book, Last Child in the Woods, to describe the host of behavioral problems he attributes to humans, especially children, spending less time in the outdoors.

Highlighting this trend away from connecting with the natural world, a recent National Aquarium commercial shows a child watching sea life in an underwater tank and remarking how “life-like” it is. The dad tries to help the son recognize that it IS real-life, not virtual reality.

The solution: GET OUTSIDE! We are lucky here in Fairfax County to have 427 parks on approximately 23,359 acres of land. There is truly something for everyone: from outdoor waterparks to the new Treetop Adventure Course at South Run. The parks also include many miles of hiking trails. For  more information about Fairfax County parks and programming, go to http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/

For those who want to gain in-depth understanding of the natural environment or want to work on an environmental project in their community, the Master Naturalist program may be an option. The Master Naturalist program describes itself on its Virginia website as “volunteer educators, citizen scientists, and stewards helping Virginia conserve and manage natural resources and public lands.” This organization has trained experts to help reconnect people to their natural surroundings. Check out the Fairfax Chapter http://www.vmnfairfax.org/SitePages/Home.aspx

For individuals who want to go even further, registration to start the training towards becoming a Master Naturalist is happening right now for the fall training session. http://www.vmnfairfax.org/Shared%20Documents/2017%20UPDATED%20FMN%20Application_Fillable.pdf

Every day is Earth Day at Clean Fairfax.   Clean Fairfax is out in the community at Clean Ups, and Stream Monitorings, and looking for innovative ways to remind people to use their own grocery bags every single day of the year.   And we are planning to celebrate Earth and Arbor Day a week later, in the form of SpringFest Fairfax. 

This year, SpringFest Fairfax is on Saturday, April 29th  and we are in our new location of Sully Historic Site, in Chantilly (just off 28)

Last year, over 3,000 children and adults attended this fun and educational celebration of our natural environment. This year we anticipate even more attendees and have added even more events.

The festival will include hands-on environmental workshops; games for all ages; Billy B; The Recycling Pirates Puppet Show; petting zoo; touch-a-truck; obstacle courses; wildlife shows; tree planting; live entertainment, plant sales, 16 food trucks, and more!

We will also be celebrating Fairfax County’s 275^th Anniversary with a children’s poetry contest reading and the kick off to Fairfax County Farmers Market Season! We are excited to say that in the past SpringFest has been a Virginia Green event, one of a select few certified events in Northern Virginia, and we anticipate certification at our new location at Sully Historic Site. 

A short speaking program with elected officials is scheduled between 12 and 12:30 pm.  The full schedule of events, a map, and other information,  can be found on the SpringFest Fairfax site. 

SpringFest exhibitors and vendors are primarily non-profit organizations and county agencies as well as local small businesses working to keep Fairfax County clean, green, and healthy. Exhibitors and vendors will again pledge to be free from polystyrene, and we will have site-wide recycling of bottles, cans, and cardboard as well as Food Composting!

Volunteers are always needed to help work the event–it’s a great time to get your school hours in! Please register to volunteer by signing up here

SpringFest Fairfax is presented free to the public by Clean Fairfax in partnership with Fairfax County’s Park Authority.

Key sponsors of the event are Fairfax Water and Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, Stohlman Subaru, Covanta, MOMs, Top Golf, and Delegate Ken Plum!

For the most up to date information about this Rain or Shine event, please follow us on Facebook at Clean Fairfax and SpringFest Fairfax

Virginia is definitely not keeping up with Mumbai, Eritrea, Rwanda, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, China, South Africa, Tanzania, Australia, Ireland, and Italy. Nor with Washington, D.C., Montgomery County, MD, California, and other localities across the United States. When it comes to cleaning up our plastic bag problem, we are behind.

A proposed bill to add a plastic bag tax in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed (SB 925) was “passed by indefinitely,” i.e. defeated, on January 18, 2017, by the VA Senate Finance Committee. This bill would have imposed a five-cent per bag tax on plastic bags provided to customers by certain retailers in localities located wholly within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and directed revenues to be used to support the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan. The bill would have allowed every retailer that collects the tax to retain one cent of the five-cent tax. And, as studies of areas that have passed similar legislation show, would have reduced plastic bag litter in Virginia’s environmentally sensitive Chesapeake Bay Watershed region.

Meanwhile, neighboring localities have taken action. In 2009, Washington, D.C. imposed a 5 cent tax on plastic bags. Using the slogan “Skip the Bag, Save the River” the campaign helped people make the connection between plastic bag use and the huge litter problem D.C. was facing. According to a May 2015 article in The Washington Post, the nickels from the bag fee contributed about $10 million to the Anacostia River Clean Up and Protection Fund. While D.C. has struggled to scientifically measure the exact cleanup effects of the ban, in 2013 the Alice Ferguson Foundation surveyed 600 residents. The results of the survey showed that
District households, on average, estimated they had decreased bag use by 60 percent, from ten bags a week to four.

Legislation passed in January of 2012 requires retail establishments in Montgomery County, Maryland who provide customers a plastic or paper carryout bag at the point of sale to charge 5 cents per bag. The revenues from this charge are deposited into the County’s Water Quality Protection Charge (WQPC) fund. According to a July 2016 Washington Post article, Montgomery’s tax generated $10.4 million for pollution and stormwater control programs.  More importantly, traps at 15 stream sites in the county monitored by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments showed a decline in the number of plastic bags collected, from 856 in 2011 to 777 in 2015. The figure from the first half of 2016 showed an even steeper drop, to 281.

And in locales farther away, more drastic measures have been taking place. Proposition 67 banning plastic bags passed by referendum this past November in California. China, not the country one usually thinks of when considering progressive environmental measures, announced on January 24 that it will prohibit the production and distribution of ultra-thin bags beginning June 1, 2017.

Why this attention on plastic bags? According to Plastic Waste Solutions, globally we use a trillion bags a year.  That is approximately 10 million every 5 minutes. And only a small number of these end up recycled since they are not typically part of regular curbside recycling programs. Wildlife ingestion and entanglement, detrimental changes in water chemistry, and unsightly litter are all results of plastic bag use—and misuse. Production of the bags also causes pollution. While the majority of plastic bags in the United States are made from natural gas, there is air pollution associated with the emissions from extraction.

For an excellent description of China’s recent environmental wake up call and the devastating effects of plastic bag litter that has prompted government leaders worldwide—though not in Virginia— to enact legislation to control or ban the use of plastic bags, read http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5565.

America Recycles Day, November 15, 2016 has arrived—and I want to talk about a pet peeve: Large events that provide NO recycling options! I have recently attended indoor and outdoor sporting events, a large training event with teenagers, and a wedding. In every instance, huge quantities of bottles and cans were thrown into the garbage, not because the facility did not have recycling on the premises, but rather because they did not make it easy for participants to recycle.

People want to recycle. According to an April, 2016 Pew Research Center Report, 39% of U.S. adults say the term “environmentalist” described them very well. Data from a Pew 2014 survey shows that close to half, 46%, of Americans say they recycle or reduce waste to protect the environment whenever possible.

So we need to give people a chance to recycle: If you are planning a personal or work event, check with your venue to ensure that adequate recycling options are available for the guests or participants making it easy for them to recycle.

One easy way to ensure that you are “greening” your event is to find Virginia Green Certified venues. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC), and the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association (VRLTA) have partnered together to provide opportunities for facilities to reduce the environmental impacts of the tourism and events industry and raise environmental awareness.

To become VA Green Certified, Convention and Conference Centers must at a minimum

• Provide Recycling:provide for recycling at their events
• Minimize the use of disposable food service products:use products that are made from bio-based or renewable resources and provide for recycling or composting of items
• Water Efficiency:must have a plan for conserving and using water efficiently
• Energy Conservation:must have a plan in place to reduce overall energy consumption
• Support Green Conferences & Events: must offer a “green” or “environmentally-friendly” package for events.

For ideas on Green Events, please check out the fact-sheet on Environmentally-Responsible Conferences, Meeting, and Events:  http://www.deq.virginia.gov/Portals/0/DEQ/PollutionPrevention/VirginiaGreen/8-4-11_Green_Events.pdf

To find lists of Virginia Green Certified facilities, go tohttp://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/PollutionPrevention/VirginiaGreen/GreenConventionsConferences.aspx

America Recycles Day, Keep America Beautiful’s nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling, is November 15 this year. Living in Fairfax County, where we have curbside recycling, it is easy to assume that the U.S. is a leader in recycling. In fact, the U.S. falls behind many other nations, with Americans recycling only 34 percent of all the waste they create, according to a 2013 report from the EPA.

Planet Aid shows here how we compare to other industrialized nations:

Many other countries have developed more successful recycling programs, with Austria at 63% and Germany at 62%, as the world’s leaders.

So, in honor of America Recycles Day, this blog will be highlighting some recycling opportunities in the next few weeks. We definitely have some room for improvement as a nation— and individually.

Approximately 15%-17% of the U.S. population smokes cigarettes, down from 21% in 2005 according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. While this is a good trend from a health perspective, the rise in “smoke free” establishments for our majority non-smoking population has had an unintended consequence: fewer accommodations for those who do smoke means that many cigarette butts end up as litter.

Ashtrays are no longer standard in most new cars, so the sides of our highways are littered with flicked cigarette butts. Many buildings that don’t allow smoking indoors do not provide ash cans for proper disposal of cigarettes outside. In the case of smoke-free open spaces such as beaches, parks, and campuses, there are often no ashcans nearby.

According to the CDC, cigarette butts are the most commonly thrown out waste worldwide. Approximately 1.69 BILLION pounds of butts wind up as toxic trash each year, creating a huge environmental, health, and economic problem.

Cigarette butts are NOT biodegradable! Cigarette filters are made from cellulose acetate, a plastic that can break into smaller pieces, but will never biodegrade or disappear.  Also, toxic substances are leached from the filter and tobacco remnants. This hazardous material not only persists in the environment for some time, but also is often ingested by wildlife and pets, not to mention small children, who suffer serious health problems as a result.

American for Non-Smokers Rights makes the following suggestions:

• Educate community stakeholders about the impact of tobacco waste on the environment
• Include pre and post butt clean ups as part of smoke-free beach, park, and campus policies, along with clear, positive signage about the policy

Clean Fairfax continues to work on both these efforts.  We also encourage smokers to purchase car cup holder ashtrays and/or portable pocket size ashtrays. These are readily available online and are inexpensive.

If you are a smoker, think before you flick.