To put on everyone’s radar, we are feeling hopeful we’ll be able to have our Earth Daze event at Aslin in Herndon on the 24th of April to Celebrate Earth and Arbor Days, so Save the Date!    

Virginia General Assembly: The Virginia General Assembly started yesterday (1/13) and important bills are moving quickly.

Yesterday was the first step towards ensuring expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and beverage service containers are banned. The House Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources Committee held the first vote on House Bill 2092 and the bill passed out of the committee with a 15 Yes – 7 No vote! If you have a minute, let our elected officials know you appreciate them standing up for Virginia’s environment!

Tomorrow, House Bill 2042, which gives localities the ability to increase the mandated percentage of tree cover that must be replaced or conserved during development will be heard in the House Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee. Tree cover is important on so many levels: it helps improve water quality, provides natural habitat, reduces erosion, mitigates flooding, reduces heat-island effect, acts as natural traffic calming, raises property values, and improves quality of life. Virginia loses over 16,000 acres of trees every year, and this bill could help reduce the accelerating loss of greenspaces across the Commonwealth. You can read a great one page write up about the importance of expanding tree coverage in Virginia on the Virginia Conservation Network website here! If your delegate is a member of the House Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee this is a great time to let them know you support increasing tree cover! Contact information for committee members is available through the House Counties, Cities, and Towns Committee links. 

Plant NOVA Natives: Sticking with the theme of the need to expand green space, we wanted to share some information about a local group doing great work. Plant NOVA Natives has been providing a series of workshops with some more coming up! They have hosted a series of videoconferences called “Ask an Expert” where local experts have helped people create flourishing native plant ecosystems! They have compiled the video series on a YouTube playlist you can check out here. And for more great native plant information read their latest newsletter here!

Bioplastics and Greenwashing: We’ve written about why “biodegradable” plastics are not the answer to the plastic crisis- switching from one type of plastic to another will not solve our problems, it’s purely greenwashing (marketing a product to make it seem environmentally friendly). The most glaring problem with biodegradable plastic is that they require industrial facilities to compost. You can’t put them in your backyard composter to use on your home garden. China recently announced a plan to eliminate single use plastics by 2025, but their plan has some serious shortcomings.

China is planning on substituting traditional plastics with “biodegradable” plastic. In the last year, Chinese companies have increased their ability to produce “biodegradable” by over 4 million tons every year. This expansion of production facilities has not been combined with building the infrastructure necessary to handle increased production. When dealing with any kind of plastic, remember the 4 Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Read the entire story about why switching to “biodegradable” plastics is not a feasible option here. Recently Glad released their new “green” sandwich bags made of 50% plant based material. These bags cannot be recycled, they are not biodegradable, they will sit in landfills just like every other plastic bag. Labeling these bags as “green” is a perfect example of greenwashing- the product is being falsely marketed as an environmentally friendly alternative. 

PPE Waste Problems: Masks are good; we wear them and encourage everyone to follow CDC guidelines, just make sure they don’t end up as litter. Improperly disposed masks are clogging storm drains and harming wildlife. In 2020 over 1.5 billion masks made their way into the ocean. Face masks are a necessity and reusables ones are great. Here’s a story about the increased prevalence of masks in natural environments. Reusable masks are great, we’ve made some with old t-shirts and we’ve purchased some from local businesses that have had to pivot during the pandemic- there are always other options than single use items!

McDonald’s to Remove Toxic Chemicals from Packaging: There is a lot of excitement that McDonald’s has announced they will eliminate toxic chemicals (PFAS- Perfluorooctanoic acid) from their food packaging materials by 2025. You read that correctly, the largest food chain in the world has toxic chemicals in their packaging. They aren’t alone,  PFAS is in everything from clothing to pots and pans, even food packaging. PFAS chemicals damage the immune system and have been linked to a litany of cancer and neurological problems. PFAS impacts groundwater and is extremely difficult to clean up when it reaches the environment. There are a few bills in Virginia that aim to reduce PFAS impact in the state, and it is always helpful to let your elected officials know you are concerned about the spread of this toxic chemical. For some more information about PFAS you can read the full story about PFAS in food packaging here.

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!

Fairfax single use plastic bag fee: Last week, The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Environmental Committee discussed the potential $0.05 plastic bag fee. The general consensus from the BOS members in attendance was that they were not ready to go forward instituting the fee for single use plastic bags until the Department of Taxation provides some clarifications and until the pandemic is under control. While we absolutely disagree with the county’s decision to not work on implementing the single use plastic bag fee, we do not fault them for their concern for Fairfax County residents. Where we do take strong issue is when a member of the Board of Supervisors says, “I tend to like to make my decisions on research and scientific evidence and not political decisions, but uh, there’s not a lot of evidence that plastics and their breakdown are a problem in the Chesapeake Bay or its tributaries…Disallowing plastic bags just on the basis that they might be a threat, I gotta, without the back up I have a little bit of a problem”. There is widespread, irrefutable evidence that plastic bags are causing harm in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. If you live in the Springfield District of Fairfax County, this would be a good time to let your Board of Supervisor know about the problems of plastic waste in his district. You can contact him here. You can watch his full remarks, starting at the 18 minute mark. And you can read the study he mischaracterizes here.

We have been long standing advocates for a single use bag fee in Virginia, our consistent advocacy was integral to this fee being passed at the General Assembly. The county has asked us to head a new Litter Task Force, to start a new mask litter education program, how to get a car out of the Potomac, and how to get dumpsters out of the Potomac all in the last couple of months. We were not asked for input before this Environmental Committee meeting. We have provided litter monitoring information for these BOS members, we write a report for the county every year- This leads us to believe they don’t actually want to solve the problem, but continue to push it down the road and pretend to address the growing issue of plastic waste in our county.

Researchers and scientists from around the world have come out to support reusable items. This joint letter states that reuse and refill systems are safe to use during the pandemic and are necessary to fight the plastic crisis. Nothing about single use plastic bags is  safer than your freshly washed reusable bags.

New housing developments in Fairfax County:The Board of Supervisors has recently approved three new housing developments directly in Dulles Airport’s flight path. These three developments will bring 734 new homes to Fairfax County. One of the big claims about these new homes is that many of them will be for families earning 70%-80% of the region’s median income. Planes will fly 950’ over these houses every five minutes, every day. Not only is this a social justice issue, it’s an environmental issue. If you look at the map, you can see the area is valuable green space next to Flatlick Stream Valley Park and Ellanor C. Lawrence Park. Fairfax County needs to conserve green space, rather than asking lower income residents to sign agreements prior to moving in that they won’t complain about the noise.

Tire chemicals killing fish: Researchers in Seattle wanted to figure out why adult coho salmon were dying as soon as they entered urban waters on their journey to spawn. Researchers traced the salmon die-offs to 6PPD-quinone, which is a chemical used to extend tire life.  Anyone who has been on a boat in the Potomac or walked along the banks of our numerous Fairfax’s streams and creeks, knows tires are a problem. Could it be time to start talking about a solution to tire dumping? Maybe a tire deposit scheme, so proper tire disposal rates increase. The problem isn’t just from dumping of tires, as people drive, tires break down and little bits of rubber are washed into storm drains during rainstorms. Improving public transportation and walkability reduces runoff into our waterways. Adding roads doesn’t ease congestion. It’s time to rethink our urban areas without the auto and fossil fuel industries controlling the narrative.  

DEQ to hire an Environmental Justice Director: We often talk about environmental justice problems in Virginia in our blog, we even shared one today. DEQ is not a perfect agency, they have been hampered by unthinkable budget and personnel cuts over the last two decades. This is a good thing for Virginia, the Commonwealth has a long history of ignoring large segments of the population and this is a step in the right direction. As pipelines and plastic facilities are still being pushed forward in Virginia, we need effective advocates in positions of power. Here is the full story about DEQ’s new position.

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. 

“America Recycles Day” was last Saturday. Recycling is a good thing to do, it has a place in a circular, zero waste society, but it is by no means the answer. There’s a reason it comes at the end of the 5 R’s- Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Rot, Recycle. We cannot recycle our way out of the plastic crisis. Three of the corporations behind American Recycles Day are Coke, Pepsi, and Nestle- regular fixtures in our blog. These companies really want us to recycle, but do they? Coke uses only 9% of post-consumer plastic, Pepsi only uses 3% post consumer plastic content, and Nestle only uses 2% post consumer plastic. Some of the other companies that are telling us to recycle on America Recycles Day include Dow Chemicals, McDonalds, Clorox, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, Keurig/Dr Pepper, and Altria. Recycling is good, stopping waste at its source is better. Until these companies support policies like extended producer responsibility, and bottle bills, their calls for us to “recycle more” ring hollow. You can read a detailed description of America Recycles Day and its deception here. 

This isn’t the first time we’ve said product manufacturers need to be held accountable for their product’s entire lifecycle. Auto shops aren’t allowed to dispose of oil in the creek behind their shop. Coke should be preventing their bottles from reaching the environment and PepsiCo should make sure their Doritos wrappers don’t end up floating down the Potomac. Tetra Pak should make sure their juice box doesn’t get trapped in a beaver lodge.

Tetra Pak is the largest packaging company on the planet, with about $13 billion in sales every year. Tetra Pak makes packaging for things like juice boxes, milk cartons and chicken broth. They look like glossy cardboard, but are actually a complicated combination of multiple materials including polyethylene and aluminum. Tetra Pak makes the claim their products are 100% recyclable. Their global recycling rate in 2018 was 26%. Tetra Pak has said 70 million US households have access to facilities that will recycle their products. While it is difficult to determine what “access” means, it’s not difficult to determine there are about 50 million US households without any access to facilities that recycle Tetra Paks. Additionally, when these products are “recycled” they are shipped in giant bales to facilities in Mexico, where the byproduct is typically used to make cement. Here’s a deep dive into Tetra Pak’s greenwashed marketing scheme. 

Endangered species sighting: A few days ago, a five foot Atlantic Sturgeon was found washed ashore in Virginia Beach. Atlantic sturgeon are endangered but have been on the planet for over 120 million years- they were here with dinosaurs! Atlantic sturgeon aren’t usually what people think of when Fairfax County or the Potomac River are mentioned, but our home used to be their spawning ground.  Overfishing and human expansion pushed sturgeon to the brink of extinction, but there are multiple efforts to help the species recover. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science has been collaborating with groups in Virginia and federal agencies to create new strategies in Virginia waters. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources monitor receivers on tagged sturgeon to study migratory patterns, spawning habits, and where the fish spend the winter months.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Drilling: One of the big stories from this week was the announcement that oil and gas companies have been asked to submit their proposals to extract oil and natural gas from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This directive doesn’t only open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, almost 400,000 of federal land in the Lower 48 states will be auctioned off in the next two months. Immediately after the announcement, Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity, the National Audubon Society, and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit. The Gwich’in Steering Committee has also filed a lawsuit to protect their sacred ancestral land. Hope is not lost, last week a federal judge ruled that the Bureau of Land Management failed to disclose the climate impacts for a proposal to frack oil and gas on 300,000 acres in Wyoming which has stopped (temporarily) the operation. It is also important to note that Royal Dutch Shell ended their Arctic exploration in 2015 because there wasn’t enough oil and gas to make the operation economically viable. Read the latest developments to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge here. 

On Tuesday we shared a story about why a green recovery is necessary to protect human health and promote a more equitable economy. Today we wanted to share a few stories about the green recovery in action and what it could look like on a large scale. 

Globally, renewable energy sources are likely to become the largest source of global electricity in five years. Just this year renewable capacity around the world is expected to increase by almost 4% and renewable energy will be almost 90% of increased global power capacity. Despite the prevalence of renewable sources increasing, governments around the world have continued to focus their relief efforts on fossil fuels and maintaining the status quo. The International Energy Agency released a report last week that clearly shows the booming growth of renewable energy despite the coronavirus pandemic. We encourage you to read the entire report here!

About 17% of US electricity generation is from renewable energy sources, with 7.1% coming from wind and only 1.7% from solar energy. The US needs to increase our use of renewable energy sources to wean us off of our insatiable lust for fossil fuels. Projects around the country are happening to make that happen.

(Ute Mountain Solar installation in Towaoc, Ute Mountain Reservation, April 2019. Photo from referenced article)

In late 2019, the Ute Mountain Ute tribe in Colorado began generating electricity with a 3,500 solar panel system. This system generates 1 megawatt and provides about 10% of the electricity for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe. This installation also reduces emissions from tribal land by over 1,500 tons of greenhouse gases every year. What is really exciting about this project is that the tribe is planning on expanding the solar system to 200 megawatts which would enable the Ute Mountain Ute tribe to achieve net-zero energy, but also allow the excess power to be transported for use outside of tribal lands. You can read the entire story about the Ute Mountain Ute tribe’s solar farm and their expansion plans here!

In April of this year, Governor Northam signed the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA). The VCEA requires Virginia power to be generated by 100% carbon free sources by 2050 and requires that almost all coal fired power plants close by the end of 2024. As coal plants close, Virginia has a couple options- they can choose to replace the lost generation with increased natural gas use, or they can expand renewable energy use.  

The largest solar farm east of the Rockies is being built in Spotsylvania County. In 2018, Virginia’s solar capacity was 656 megawatts. This new 620 megawatt solar system will almost double Virginia’s solar energy capacity. This solar farm was hotly debated during the permitting process, mostly focused on land use concerns and hollow environmental concerns. Last year, the Rappahannock Sierra Club wrote an excellent piece on the reasons to support the Spotsylvania solar farm. The Spotsylvania solar farm is currently under construction, here is some more of the latest information about it!

Wind turbine off the coast of Virginia Beach. Photo from WTKR News Virginia Beach. https://www.wtkr.com/news/news-3-gets-a-first-look-at-virginias-offshore-wind-project)

Increasing wind power capacity will be critical for Virginia to achieve zero carbon energy by 2050. Virginia is collaborating with North Carolina and Maryland to reduce project costs and improve infrastructure. Virginia has a 12 megawatt offshore wind installation, and our colleagues in Virginia Beach say it is extremely impressive. This three state collaboration will result in 86,000 jobs, $57 billion in investments and $25 billion in economic output by 2030. Read the entire story about this three state wind energy collaboration here! As we look to increase the prevalence of renewable energy, it is important that all impacted stakeholders are consulted through the process. Renewable energy does often require significant land (or water), and displacing communities or their way of life is not an appropriate strategy. Renewable energy can grow equitably. 

It’s OK to acknowledge that offshore wind isn’t perfect- there are no perfect ways to generate energy, but there are certainly better ways than fossil fuels. 

New Jersey’s Plastics Ban: In 2018, New Jersey passed a fee for single use plastic and paper bags provided to customers. In early 2019, Governor Murphy vetoed the bill and told state lawmakers to create a stronger bill. The New Jersey state legislature responded with a bill to ban businesses from providing single use plastic or paper bags, expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and beverage containers, and plastic straws will only be available upon request. Businesses and residents will have 18 months to adjust to the changes that will become effective in May 2022. An important aspect of New Jersey’s plastic ban is $1.5 million over a three year period that will be used to fund a public education campaign and to provide free reusable bags. New Jersey is expecting to hand out at least 2 million reusable bags. Read the entire story about this first of its kind legislation here! 

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

Green Recovery: As the US and the world look to rebuild after the pandemic, the environmentally and socially responsible solution is also back by economics. A “Green” recovery plan boosts income, employment, and GDP more than if we return to life as we knew with an economic focus on fossil fuels. A new analysis used five pieces from a green recovery plan to determine the cost difference of a green recovery or a return to normal scenario. 

The five pieces analyzed in the study were: 

1. Public investment in energy efficiency
2. Subsidies for wind and solar power
3. Public investment in upgrading electricity grids
4. Car scrappage schemes in which subsidies are only provided to electric vehicles
5. Tree planting programs.

A green recovery in the US would result in 1 million more jobs by 2024 and would result in a 7% reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Where do all these extra jobs come from? For every $1 million invested in fossil fuels there are 5.3 full time jobs created. That same investment towards energy efficiency and renewable technology there are 16.7 full time jobs created. It doesn’t matter who you voted for, 16.7 will always be more than 5.3 and those jobs will be better paying and healthier for both the worker, and the consumer. What’s not to love?  Read the entire analysis on the importance of a green recovery here!

Plastic Facility Permit Suspension: We share a lot of stories about the expanding footprint of plastic manufacturing facilities. Today we have a better story. The Army Corps of Engineers has announced they will be suspending the permits for the construction of a $9.4 billion plastics facility in Louisiana that would be owned by the Taiwanese company Formosa Plastics. If this permit is approved, emissions from the plant would triple the levels of cancer-causing airborne chemicals in the area. This new facility would be more toxic than 99.6% of all facilities that contain cancer causing chemicals. Here’s the full story about why the Army Corps of Engineers decided to suspend Formosa’s permit.

This is a good step, but we need to maintain our opposition to the expansion of plastic production facilities. Big plastic will not stop their push, we won’t stop our opposition. Southern Louisiana sounds pretty far away, Cumberland County Virginia is not far away. Cumberland County is the home of a recently announced site for a new plastic facility. Hurt, Virginia outside of Lynchburg  is not far away, a new plastics facility is expected to begin operating there next year. Economic development is a good thing, but doing so at the expense of human health and the environment is immoral. It is no surprise plastic facilities like these and other dirty industries are built in Virginia in communities with median annual income 43% lower than the Virginia average. Communities need jobs–yes, but not jobs that expose people to cancer-causing chemicals.

(Sprouting in compost. Photo Credit Fairfax County. Retrieved from https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/news2/compost-your-food-waste/)

Composting Help: With the Virginia outdoor planting season coming to an end, now is the time to be preparing your garden for winter and next spring!  If you’ve been buying compost you may be SHOCKED to know that you can make your own for almost FREE!  Composting is also a great way to deal with the EPIC amounts of waste we all send to the landfill or incinerator every week, it can reduce a household’s waste stream by 50%. Compost is called “black gold” because it is extremely rich in plant nutrients that are best used as fertilizer. You can get started with a simple $50 composter that you keep in your kitchen or you can go all out with a self aeration composting system. Here is a helpful article to help you sort through several types of composting systems!  We even have a few options on our website under sustainable living if you want to check them out.

We mention the term greenwashing a lot and it is possible folks don’t always know what we’re talking about, it’s whitewashing, but for the environment. It is deliberately trying to conceal unpleasant facts- a cover up, or to sweep something under the rug by making something seem more environmentally friendly than it really is, in order to appeal to consumers who are spending their money based on these good environmental practices. 

Greenwashing is an unflattering term because it is the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company’s products are more environmentally sound. Greenwashing is considered an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company’s products are environmentally safe,  or that the company is taking legitimate actions to reduce their negative environmental impact. An example that comes to our minds is the Volkswagen clean diesel scandal where the company marketed their diesel vehicles as the cleaner option knowing they were emitting dangerous chemicals. It led consumers into believing they were buying a product that has become “better” when it actually has not. When bottled water companies advertise that the caps on their bottles are now smaller so they use less plastic, that is greenwashing. In short, it is a lie, at best a half truth. 

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

A couple weeks ago we shared a story about British Petroleum’s (BP) personal carbon footprint calculator. This week’s greenwashing all-star is Royal Dutch Shell. Shell’s Twitter account tweeted “What are you willing to change to help reduce emissions?” Our first question was, “Who let that Tweet go public?”

What is Shell doing to reduce emissions? In 2016 Shell announced they would be investing between $4 and $6 billion in their “new energies” program to increase their renewable energy portfolio. The company has only spent about $2 billion on “new energies” since 2016. During this same time period Shell spent over $120 billion on fossil fuel projects and plans to spend $30 billion annually in the coming years bolstering their commitment to fossil fuels. Here’s the full story on Shell gaslighting the public. 

Shell isn’t just focused on energy production, the company is spending billions of dollars building up their plastic production capabilities. Shell is in the final stages of constructing a multibillion dollar plastic production facility outside of Pittsburgh. This facility will have ethane supplied by the new Falcon pipeline and its own rail system with over 3,000 freight cars. Shell has built this brand new 386 acre facility thanks in part to a $1.6 billion subsidy to reduce construction costs, the largest tax subsidy ever provided in Pennsylvania. When this plastic production facility is complete, it will be capable of producing over 1 million tons of plastic pellets every year. The tax subsidy they received for this project is almost equal to what the company has invested in renewable energy in the last four years. Shell’s new plastic facility will result in over 2 million tons of carbon dioxide every year. 

So we ask again, what is Shell doing to reduce emissions? The answer- Nothing. You can read about Shell’s new disastrous plastic production facility here and here.

(Plastic bottles on the bank of the Potomac River in Fairfax County. Photo credit: Clean Fairfax)

Another reason we don’t need Shell building one of the largest plastic production facilities in the world is because the US is already by far the world’s largest generator of plastic waste. In 2016, the US generated 42 million metric tons of plastic waste and ranked third among coastal countries for litter and mismanaged waste on shorelines with 2.24 million metric tons escaping into the environment. 2.24 million metric tons would cover the White House lawn in a pile as high as the Empire State Building. The US has just 4% of the global population, but generates 17% of all plastic waste and we have no solution to handle the waste we are generating. National Geographic did a great write up on the latest global trash study that you can read here. You can read the entire study, The United States’ Contribution of Plastic Waste to Land and Ocean, here. 

We (regular people, consumers, folks who are trying to do the right thing) cannot be expected to continue to clean up the messes that have been made by these corporations. The responsibility to clean up and solve the plastic crisis must be placed on corporations. Yes, we must take every plastic bottle to the recycling bin and we must reduce our usage of single use plastics, but without systemic changes at the top the crisis will only continue. We produce almost 20% of plastic waste on the planet without the infrastructure to handle the flow. Corporations must act to benefit society rather than ask us what we are going to do to reduce emissions.  

We can always do better, But they HAVE to do better. Our lives depend on it.

Brown Grove, Virginia Needs Help: About 90 miles from Fairfax, the community of Brown Grove, VA is under threat from expanded industrial activity. This community was established over 150 years ago by formerly enslaved men and women who united to form a community that has struggled to remain intact in the face of big business. Over the last 50 years several industrial businesses entered the area including a concrete manufacturing facility, a large landfill, and a municipal airport – all built with little input from the local community. There is a proposed 1.1 million square foot Wegman’s distribution center that will surround the Brown Grove community and negatively impact human and environmental health in this community. You can help this threatened community by signing this petition and reading and sharing this fantastic article about the history of Brown Grove and corporate intrusion.  

Canada’s Single Use Plastic Ban: We’ve shared multiple stories about Canada’s single use plastic ban set to go into effect next year. Now, the all too familiar US based plastic industry, including the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the Plastics Industry Association (PIA), is working to make sure the single use ban never takes hold in Canada. The plastics industry has claimed that the proposed Canadian legislation would violate stipulations in the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). This strategy of threatening foreign countries with trade disputes was the same strategy chosen by the US plastic industry in their attempt to force Kenya to accept foreign plastic waste. The goal of these companies is to make sure plastic products continue to pollute the environment. The ACC was the driving force that stopped the complete passage of the expanded polystyrene food and beverage service container ban. Read about the latest attempts by the US plastics industry to stop important plastic waste reduction legislation here.

Fossil Fuel Industry Scam: Climate change is real and its impacts are already being felt around the world. Unfortunately, the oil industry has a solution – not for climate change, but how they can keep extracting fossil fuels. Oil companies are beginning to partner with Arctic Foundations, whose main products are thermosiphons, large tubes that pull heat out of the ground to stop permafrost from melting. Why do oil companies need thermosiphons? Due to continued melting permafrost in the Arctic, the oil extraction rigs will collapse. Having to install thermosiphons doesn’t bother fossil fuel extraction companies. Thawing permafrost makes it easier to transport liquified natural gas being made available due to melting sea ice. Thermosiphons are a small price for these companies to pay to continue bolstering corporate profits at the expense of human and environmental health. Read the story about the fossil fuel industry’s latest efforts to continue exacerbating climate change here. 

New Reef Discovery: We wanted to share some good news with everyone today. Last week researchers discovered a 1,600ft tall reef detached from the Great Barrier Reef. The researchers used an underwater robot called SuBastian to create a detailed map of the previously unidentified reef. This is an encouraging discovery because over the last 30 years about half of the Great Barrier Reef’s coral population has been lost. Read more about SuBastian and this important discovery here!

(Underwater map of the recently discovered reef. Image credit Schmidt Ocean Institute, retrieved from referenced article)