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.

To get everyone ready for the weekend, we wanted to share some good environmental news. There are serious environmental issues that must be dealt with, but we can still celebrate good things that have happened.

The End of Coal: The push to end the use of coal power just got another significant backer, General Electric. GE has been a prominent builder of coal fired power plants for several decades. In 2015 GE spent $9.5 billion to purchase Alstom’s power segment, who makes coal-fueled turbines. GE is increasing their focus on renewable energy and leaving coal behind, highlighted by the creation of Haliade-X, the most powerful offshore wind turbine ever made. 2019 was a banner year for renewable energy in the US, it was the first time since 1885 that the US used more energy from renewable sources than from coal. Read the entire General Electric story here!

Musky Fishing: At Clean Fairfax we like to spend a lot of time outdoors and are appreciative of efforts by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources to improve outdoor recreation opportunities. Earlier this month DWR biologists released 3,525 fingerling Muskellunge into eight bodies of water in Virginia. DWR raises the juvenile musky in hatchery ponds and releases them into Virginia waters to provide exciting catches for anglers. Musky are not native to Virginia, first introduced into the state in 1963, they have become an important part of the ecosystem and economy. Recreational fishing in Virginia is responsible for over $1.3 billion in economic impact in the Commonwealth. If you’re interested in catching a musky as the temperature drops, read the DWR Musky 101 page here!

(Muskelunge Image Credit: Virginia DWR)

Electric Cars: Most of the time, strategies that can have a positive impact on climate change move across the country in a domino effect, and California has started that reaction. Governor Newsome signed an executive order this week that mandates new cars powered by gasoline can not be sold in the state after 2035. For the state to accomplish this, they will need to ensure the infrastructure is capable of handling the influx of electric cars. One of the most important aspects of this executive order is that it will force car manufacturers to increase their investment in fossil fuel free cars. Read about Governor Newsome’s executive order here! 

Keurig Class Action: For years Keurig has advertised their Green Mountain K-Cups as recyclable. The problem is that there is nowhere to recycle them, which relates back to something we talk about on a regular basis. Just because a plastic product is technically “recyclable” or “repurposable” does not mean it is actually a possibility to do anything with those products other than send them to a landfill or incinerator. A federal judge recently approved a class action lawsuit against Keurig, while Keurig’s argument in the case was that customers should have realized the K-Cups are not recyclable everywhere. This is a classic plastic producer argument, corporations greenwash their products in an attempt to trick the general public. Thank you to Judge Gilliam for standing with people over polluters. Read the story here! 

Benefits of Beavers: As previously mentioned, we like to spend a lot of time outside and when we are hiking or kayaking we often watch beavers who are busy at work and their work is more important than ever! Beaver habitat provides refuge during wildfires. As put by Joe Wheaton, a geomorphologist at Utah State, “It’s really not complicated: water doesn’t burn”. Researchers studied satellite images of areas burned by wildfires and found a common thread through the areas. The locations that had beaver dams were still lush and green, providing much needed habitat for flora and fauna in regions devastated by forest fires. Next time you’re paddling on the Potomac and you hear a beaver’s tail slap the water, make sure you thank them for their help! Learn more about how beavers protect ecosystems here!

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

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

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

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

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

Unnamed creek in Fairfax County. Photo credit Clean Fairfax.

Last week we shared the NPR and PBS investigation into lies told by the fossil fuel industry, this week let’s look into one of those lies. The idea of the personal “carbon footprint” was an advertising campaign from British Petroleum (BP) complete with their “carbon footprint calculator” to let individuals know how they personally are having a negative impact on the planet. Our actions do have an impact on the planet, but not in the way a multi-billion dollar oil company impacts the planet. Ten years ago, BP leaked hundreds of millions of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. We all know we need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, BP does not have any interest in change. The company recently made their largest gas and oil field reserves purchase in twenty years. Read the entire story about one of the most effective marketing campaigns in history here.

There are changes we can and should make to reduce our impact on the planet. For the first time, researchers have released a global estimate of synthetic microfibers released by washing clothing. The researchers estimated that about 2.8 megatons were released between 2006 and 2016. Solving the plastic crisis will take systemic change, but we can take steps to help when we do our laundry. We can be intentional about the clothing we buy, choose natural fibers over synthetic- merino wool makes a great substitute for synthetic outdoor gear. You can also use a microfiber trapping bag. You can read the first of its kind study here.

September is National Honey Bee Month, honey bees help the production of about 90 commercially grown crops in the US and are valued at $15 billion because of their important task of pollinating the fruits, nuts, and vegetables that we eat. Honey bees need our help! Honey bee colony loss rates average 30% every winter, a drastic increase from the historic 10% to 15% loss. The increased honey bee mortality rates are attributed to habitat loss, mite infestations, diseases, a lack of genetic diversity, and dangerous pesticides. Here is some great information about honey bees!

(Photo Credit Clean Fairfax)

Ten years ago world leaders met in Japan to establish a global plan to conserve biodiversity, promote sustainability, and protect ecosystems. The world failed on every initiative laid out in the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. There was a little bit of good news in the UN Biodiversity Outlook report, global deforestation has fallen by over 30%, some areas have been successful in removing invasive species, and a few fish stocks are beginning to rebound. However, habit loss is increasing, our demand for fossil fuels continues to increase and global access to fresh water is reaching dangerously low levels. Read the entire report here.

To send you off with some good news, climate change is real, but we will still be able to eat avocados. A researcher at the University of Queensland was able to successfully use cryptopreservation, the same process used to preserve sperm or eggs, to preserve avocado cuttings for future generations. Avocado toast is delicious, but this research is more important than that, it is industry saving. Since 2011 laurel wilt fungus has destroyed Florida’s avocado trees, with the tree loss adding up to $42 million. Read about the two year project here!

(Photo credit Clean Fairfax)

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

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

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

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

(Katherine Frey/ The Washington Post)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(AP Photo, Ben Curtis, File)

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

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

(Photo attributed to referenced article)

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

(Photo attributed to referenced article)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Jen and Zach