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)

Japanese Waste Reduction: As we look for best practices to reduce waste we can find inspiration domestically and abroad. There was a great strategy proposed in Japan that would reduce their plastic waste stream by over 50%. In 2018, Japan generated 8.91 million tons of plastic waste, and almost 5 million tons were from the corporate sector. In the next Japanese parliamentary session a bill will be introduced to mandate plastic recycling for all large companies in the country. These companies would be responsible for sorting their plastic waste before collection. This proposal has been endorsed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry and the Environment Ministry. The US does not have a national recycling mandate, we are left with a series of local and state laws without federal guidance to ensure all localitities are recycling. Read more about Japan’s initiatives here!

(Trash bags ripped open in Fairfax County. Photo Credit Clean Fairfax)

Vermont’s Single Use Plastic Ban: When we’re looking for best practices to reduce waste, we don’t need to fly across the Pacific Ocean, we can take a drive up 95. Beginning on July 1, 2020 Vermont banned several single use plastic products. All plastic bags provided free of charge to customers are banned, this includes compostable bags and alll paper bags now come with a $0.10 (cent) fee. Restaurants are no longer allowed to automatically provide plastic straws, they are only available upon request. “Compostable” plastic straws are not an acceptable substitute under Vermont’s law. Food service establishments are not allowed to provide their customers with plastic stirrer sticks. Expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) is not allowed to be used for food or beverage service, the items included in this ban are plates and cups, trays, egg cartons, and take-out containers. Here is all the information about what Vermont is doing to fight the plastic crisis!

If you want to read about the problems around “compostable” plastic and why it is a good thing Vermont clarified their regulations to include compostable plastics in their ban, you can read our past blog on the subject here.

Recycling Evolution: We may sound like a broken record at times, but it is important to continually repeat the fact that WE CAN NOT RECYCLE OUR WAY OUT OF THE PLASTIC CRISIS! For the last 40 years the bulk of the plastic waste we’ve generated has been sent to China. Because of China’s National Sword Policy, only plastic that is 99.5% pure is entering the country. This led to bales of plastic left sitting in material recovery facilities (MRFs) around the US. To meet the demands of the changing global recycling markets, localities around the US have begun to build dozens of MRFs. If there are 36 MRFs being built, the construction costs alone will cost a minimum of $700 million. This construction is funded by taxpayer dollars. We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars without addressing the problem, we can not recycle all of the waste that is being generated even with more MRFs. The most direct solution is forcing these multibillion corporations to play an active financial role in cleaning up the mess they have created. Our communities have supported these businesses for decades while these corporations have only been extracting profits. Read more about how the recycling industry must evolve to meet the future demands of plastic production here.

(Bottles in a Fairfax County Creek. Photo Credit Clean Fairfax)

Fossil Fuel Plans for the Future: Prices for crude oil and natural gas remain extremely low and the fossil fuel industry is looking for strategies to keep their polluting products at the center of our economy. The fossil fuel industry is planning to invest $400 billion to build new petrochemical facilities to manufacture plastics. For every one ton of plastic produced there is a cost of $1000 imposed on society through CO2 emissions, air pollution, and collection of plastic waste. These costs from plastic production are estimated to $350 billion every year. In the next twenty years plastic production is projected to increase by more than 25% which would account for about 45% of all global oil demand which would drastically increase the cost imposed on society. This is why we need legislation like the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act that will slow the production of plastics and place the onus for cleanup and recycling  funding on the corporations who are causing the problem! Read about the fossil fuel gamble on expanding petrochemical facilities and how we can stop their expansion here!

The plastic crisis is not all doom and gloom, even with the uncertainties caused by the Covid pandemic, there are positive steps to reduce plastic waste happening right now!

Maryland Styrofoam Foodware Ban: As of October, 1st, expanded polystyrene (EPS), commonly referred to as Styrofoam, food and beverage containers are banned in Maryland! For anyone who participates in clean ups along the Potomac River they should start to see a reduction in the amount of EPS they find during their clean ups. Not only is this great for the environment, it’s great for Virginia because at the 2021 General Assembly our elected officials will have to vote to confirm the 2020 vote to ban EPS food and beverage service containers. With both DC and Maryland banning EPS food and beverage service containers, Virginia does not want to be left behind. You can read some more about Maryland’s EPS ban here!

Scottish Single Use Plastic Ban: The Scottish government has begun the process to ban several single use plastic products. Under the plan they are developing businesses would not be allowed to provide customers with plastic cutlery, foodware, including EPS. Scotland has already taken some great steps forward, they already have a nationwide single use plastic bag fee and have passed regulation to begin a container deposit program. The new plan would take their fight against the plastic crisis even further. Zero Waste Scotland has extensive information, check it out here!

(Infographic credit: Zero Waste Scotland, from referenced website)

Canada Single Use Plastic Ban: By the end of next year Canada will ban several single use plastic items including plastic bags, cutlery, six pack rings, and EPS food and beverage containers. This action in Canada would ban many of the same harmful plastic products that have been targeted by the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act that we have been talking about so much. The further plastic waste reduction legislation advances around the world, the more likely it becomes that the US federal government will take similar sweeping action. Read more about Canada’s single use plastic ban here!

Litter Free Virginia: The Virginia General Assembly should be wrapping up soon and that means we’ll start hearing about the legislation elected officials will be submitting for the 2021 General Assembly. Last session there were almost 4,000 pieces of legislation that was covered in 60 days, it would be impossible for one person or organization to track every important piece of legislation. At Litter Free Virginia (litterfreeva.org) we track every bill that has to do with single use plastic, the litter tax, recycling, composting, and solid waste. These bills don’t always get a lot of attention and our elected officials need to know their constituents want them to take action to stop the plastic crisis. During the General Assembly we send out about 1 email every week to let people know where the bills stand and how they can take action. We encourage you to sign up for the Litter Free Virginia newsletter to help make you a more effective advocate for plastic waste reduction!

As a non profit organization, especially a small one, we don’t have the funds to engage in lobbying. By providing this information, about pieces of legislation, we serve our mission and the people of Fairfax County and the Commonwealth of Virginia through advocacy.

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.

Plastic legislation is on the move!

New Jersey Plastic Ban: The New Jersey state Legislature has passed one of the strongest plastic waste reduction bill in the country. New Jersey’s bill will ban single use plastic and paper bags from stores and restaurants in addition to expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and drink service containers. This bill also requires straws to only be provided when requested. Including plastic and paper bags into the bill is the most effective waste reduction strategy for single use bags because it encourages widespread consumer behavior change to always bring your own bag. This is the kind of sweeping action we need in Virginia. Find out how New Jersey was able to accomplish this here! 

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

California Recycling Bill: In Virginia, we recycle about 20% of the single use plastic bottles that are sold every year. California recycles about 70% of single use plastic bottles sold, California is taking their plastic waste reduction even further. After failing to pass a bill that would require a 75% reduction in single use plastic waste by 2030, the state just passed the first of its kind plastic legislation in the nation to increase their bottle recycling rate. This bill requires companies that sell drinks in single use plastic bottles to use 15% recycled plastic by 2022, 25% recycled plastic by 2025, and 50% by 2030. This bill will force companies that sell plastic bottles to buy back their plastic to use again in the future. Read the entire story about how this bill passed here! To give you an idea of how well an effective bottle deposit program along with a recycled content mandate works, Norway recycles 97% of single use plastic bottles and the European Union is on target to recycle 90% of single use plastic bottles by 2029. Lithuania has a bottle recycling rate of 34%, after two years with a bottle deposit program, the country was recycling over 90% of single use plastic bottles. Read about successful bottle deposit programs here!

Waste to Energy Red Herring: For the last 30 years, Fairfax County has been the home to one of the most dangerous waste to energy facilities in the country. The Covanta facility in Lorton is located in the 12th most diverse community in the US. Waste to energy facilities generate 28 times as much dioxin than coal, 2.5 times as much carbon dioxides, twice as much carbon monoxide, 3.2 times as much nitrogen oxide, 6 times as much mercury, 5% more lead, and 20% more sulfur dioxide. This is environmental racism. Our colleagues at Energy Justice have written extensively about the Lorton Covanta facility. The dangerous trend of waste to energy facilities is continuing to spread globally. As the US continues to embrace waste to energy, countries with limited waste infrastructure see it as an answer to their problems. Read about the damaging global expansion of waste to energy here.

Plastic Industry Greenwashing: A recent report showed the world’s largest polluters of plastic waste are, at the top of the list was Coca-Cola. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the waste Coke, Nestle and Pepsi create, so today let’s look at the number five, six, and seventh ranked polluters- Procter & Gamble (P&G), Unilver, and Colgate-Palmolive. All three of these companies have made pledges to reduce the plastic waste they are generating, while lobbying against plastic waste reduction legislation. These corporate polluters are lobbying the federal government to pass the Recover Act. The Recover Act would set up a $500 million fund of taxpayer dollars that would be provided to localities to improve their recycling capabilities. A single material recovery facility costs a minimum of $20 million, which doesn’t include staffing. This bill would provide enough money for 25 recycling facilities in the US. Corporate polluters are trying to pass the cost of their waste onto taxpayers, again. The companies that are producing and distributing this waste must be held accountable for their products. Plastic waste producers should be held financially responsible to clean up their mess, not taxpayers. That is why we support the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act. Read the full story about the plastics industry’s lobbying efforts here.