This short legislative session has been a real test on our one last good nerve.

In reference to SB 1164, the bill that would classify chemical conversion (chemical recycling) as a manufacturing process, the bill co-patron had this pithy quote aimed at environmentalists who have been working overtime presenting testimony and data for why it is a bad bill: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”.

He’s right, it is a cigar, because chemical conversion facilities in Virginia will give Virginians cancer.

At that same hearing of the Agriculture, Conservation, and National Resources Committee, another sitting Virginia state senator quipped to the environmental community we didn’t know what we were talking about in reference to SB 1164. Senator Hanger’s full quote was, “I believe my friends in the environmental community will, once they understand what this actually does, I will be nominated by the Sierra Club as Environmentalist of the year”. To insinuate the environmental community does not understand the severity of allowing the petrochemical industry to have free rein in Virginia is insulting. We spend our days advocating to protect Virginia’s residents and environment, while Senator Hanger is pushing forward a bill that was hand delivered by the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

What’s our beef with the ACC? I hope you’ve got some time to read.

The ACC is the lobbying arm of the chemical industry- representing companies like, BASF Corporation, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC, DowDupont, ExxonMobil Chemical Company, Shell Chemical LP, Total Petrochemicals & Refining USA Inc.

Despite several other legislators’ condescending admonishments, we are not anti-plastic. Plastics are an important invention in our lifetime and absolutely have their place in the world; sterile plastics are necessary for medical purposes; they help reduce fuel costs by making cars and planes lighter. However, we are anti-plastic pollution and we are anti-plastic LIES. These chemical conversion facilities will not reduce plastic pollution in Virginia, they simply create a new source of plastic production and a new fossil fuel produced in toxin emitting facilities. The ACC is making a concerted effort to introduce similar legislation in state houses around the country, Virginia is their latest push.

The ACC Member Companies Promoting Chemical Conversion

BASF Corporation is currently working on expanding their plastic production, their global expansion will increase their plastic output by more than 750,000 tons every year.

In 2018, Chevron Phillips began operating a new $6 billion ethane cracker to manufacture virgin plastics in Texas. This facility can produce 1.5 million metric tons of ethylene, which is used to make plastics. This facility will turn the ethylene into plastic resin to be shipped around the world. The local economic development authority approved the highest tax abatement possible under Texas law. This abatement will eliminate 90% of the company’s property tax liability for the facility, a multi-million dollar savings for Chevron Phillips.

In 2018, DowDupont announced a plan to invest $100 million over two years to increase their virgin plastic production at their Sabine River Works plant. Dow is the world’s largest producer of polyethylene, which is used to make grocery bags and plastic containers. Dow is expecting to boost their plastic production by 1.4 million tons every year!

At the end of 2019, ExxonMobil began construction of a new $7 billion plastic production plant in Texas. In 2020, ExxonMobil began construction on a new $2 billion plastics polymer unit, that will produce more than 400,000 tons of plastic polymers every year. These facilities were granted several hundred million dollars in tax breaks over the life of the facilities.

All of these companies include increasing virgin plastic production as part of their business plan. It is in their investor relations reports, it is in their press releases. These companies are not focused on reducing plastic pollution, they are focused on growing profits and shareholder returns by any means necessary. You can tell them we said it.

These companies have been lobbying the federal government to pass the Recover Act as a solution to the plastic pollution crisis. What does the Recover Act actually do? The most important aspect of the Recovery Act is that polluting corporations would contribute $500 million that would be matched with a $500 million grant from the federal government (read that as $500 million paid by taxpayers to prop up extremely profitable businesses) which would be used to improve domestic recycling infrastructure. Continuing to throw money at this problem without addressing the root problem has created this disaster, WE NEED TO PRODUCE LESS PLASTIC! The new chemical conversion facility being built in Virginia has a price tag of $31 million. The Recover Act could only fund 32 of these facilities and leave no money to address the glaring problems of domestic waste disposal infrastructure. Chemical conversion will increase the amount of plastic waste we have to deal with and do absolutely nothing to reduce the plastic pollution crisis.

Alliance to End Plastic Waste

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste is an industry funded advocacy group they claim is being used to reduce plastic pollution around the world. The top polluting corporations, including the ones mentioned in this post, have all committed to provide a combined $1.5 billion over a five year period to combat plastic waste in the environment. The same companies that are currently spending at least $20 billion to increase their plastic production rates. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste gave $5 million to Renew Oceans to develop a trash interceptor in the Ganges River. Chevron Phillips used a video of Renew Oceans workers in the Ganges in a sustainability promotional video. This project was touted by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste as, “One of the best projects”. When this project was announced it was expected to remove 450 tons of plastic waste every year. This project was ended after less than two years and less than one ton of plastic waste removed from the Ganges.

The Chemical Conversion Business Model

Braven Environmental is currently constructing a chemical conversion facility in Cumberland County, VA. It is going to cost $31.7 million to bring this facility online and received a $150,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund and $65,000 from the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission. The public information on Braven is pretty minimal, but we found a presentation they gave for the Southeast Recycling Development Council about their Zebulon, NC facility that provides helpful facts to understand their business model. 

This facility in North Carolina is not recycling plastic waste generated in the state. Braven has a 20 year contract with Sonoco Packaging, and international company who pays Braven to take their plastic waste. Sonoco Packaging is shipping plastic waste into North Carolina. Braven hasn’t actually released any data about their products, but have said their new Virginia facility will produce 14.4 million gallons of PyChem. PyChem is a fossil fuel that is going to be burned, generating greenhouse gas emissions. THIS IS A PETROCHEMICAL PRODUCTION FACILITY. Our elected officials are selling us out to the fossil fuel industry.

Nexus is a company that is often highlighted as a success story by the ACC. What is Nexus actually doing? Nexus has a chemical conversion facility outside of Atlanta and a partnership with Shell. The ACC really likes to say Nexus is taking plastic waste from Atlanta area neighborhoods, but are they? Nexus sources more than 75% of their feedstock from regional plastic brokers (these are companies that sell plastic scrap). Nexus does say they participate with the Hefty Energy Bag program where residents of Cobb county can purchase orange Hefty bags to fill with difficult to recycle items. The Hefty Energy Bag program was the greenwashed brainchild of Dow, one of the leading plastic pollution offenders. Nexus has not released any information about how much plastic waste the Hefty program has collected.

This program also forces people who want to recycle to pay more money to recycle products manufactured by the wealthiest corporations on the planet, because they have to buy the specific bags for their plastic to be collected. Nexus also participates in Atlanta’s CHARM program. The CHARM program is a city funded drop off station where people can PAY to leave their difficult to recycle items (plastic film, styrofoam, etc.). Again, this is another tax on regular folks who want to do the right thing. People are essentially paying Shell to take their plastic waste back.

Agilyx, located in Oregon, is another “success” story that the ACC likes to talk about. In 2016 this plant was shut down because it was unable to remain profitable producing fuels from plastic and retrofitted to produce styrene. In 2018, this facility sent 49,000 tons of waste styrene, which is a known toxin, to be burned in cement kilns in low income communities. The minimal “high quality” styrene this facility produces is sent to a facility in Louisiana to produce polystyrene. In 2019, more than 30% of polystyrene this plant produced was lost during processing. For every 1 kilogram of Styrene the Agilyx produces, it generates 3.23 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

This change in strategy has not helped Agilyx become a profitable company, as of September 30, 2020, Agilyx had a negative income of $5,961,000. This company received over half a million dollars from the state of Oregon and continues to operate in the red. The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives has a great case study about chemical conversion, and we highly encourage you to read it.  

Reduce Plastic Waste at its Source

So, if we don’t want chemical conversion facilities, what do we want? Polluting corporations must play an active financial role in reducing plastic pollution. They must change their business model so the onus to clean up this mess is not left on regular people and cash strapped municipalities. We want the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act (BFFPPA). The BFFPPA is the solution to the plastic pollution crisis that the ACC is trying to stop. Why do they want to stop the BFFPPA? Because it will force ACC member companies to play an active role in cleaning up the mess they have created. The BFFPPA will implement a nationwide bottle deposit program, ban common single use plastics, place a 3 year moratorium on permitting new plastic manufacturing facilities, and implement extended producer responsibility (EPR). EPR would mandate that these companies are responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products. If a company produces 1,000 tons of plastic, they will be mandated to collect 1,000 tons of plastic. Not allowing corporations to skirt their duty of being responsible members of society is the answer to the plastic pollution crisis.

In 2020 Shell had earnings of almost $5 billion. In 2019, ExxonMobil has profits over $14 billion. In 2019 BASF had over $10 billion in profits. In 2019, Chevron Phillips had almost $3 billion in profit. In 2019, Total Petrochemical & Refining has close to $12 billion in profits. These are the wealthiest corporations on the planet, their wealth has been built by regular citizens across the planet. Fairfax County is expecting a budget shortfall of $40 million dollars in FY 2022, why are we asking cash strapped localities to prop up the profit margin of wealthy corporations?

We’ll end this by asking you who you believe? Are you going to take the word of corporations that have spent decades polluting the planet making absurd comments, or people who are actively working to protect our communities and natural spaces from corporate polluters who are only looking to extract profits. Our elected officials think the petrochemical industry is going to save us, we’ll point to climate change and the disturbing amount of plastic pollution overwhelming the planet to say they won’t. Because sometimes a cigar is just a (cancer causing) cigar, right? Right.

Let your Virginia elected official know you oppose SB 1164!

The collective advocacy efforts of groups across Virginia has stalled SB 1164, the bill to classify chemical conversion (chemical recycling aka burning plastic to create more plastic to burn) as a manufacturing process. Tomorrow, this bill will be heard by the Senate Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources Committee . This action alert is going to be short and sweet; you can read our blog on this bill and chemical conversion here. For more in depth information on chemical conversion you can read Deception by the Numbers from Greenpeace and All Talk and No Recycling from the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.

In short, the American Chemistry Council- the lobbying arm for DowDupont, Exxon, and Bayer among others- is attempting to change Virginia’s laws to enable dangerous, polluting, carbon intensive chemical conversion facilities to proliferate across the Commonwealth. Chemical Conversion is not economically or environmentally sustainable and this bill is being used to kill HB1902 to ban expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) food and beverage containers. The solution to the plastic pollution crisis is reducing waste at its source, not dangerous downstream approaches. You can access opposition talking points for SB 1164 here. 

We have until tomorrow afternoon to let the Senate Agriculture, Conservation, and Natural Resources Committee know that this bill is bad for Virginia!

Here is how you can help stop this today!

Contact YOUR elected state Senator tonight or tomorrow morning and tell them why you oppose allowing corporate polluters to influence our state’s laws. 

Virginia Grassroots provides access to an excellent spreadsheet with all the contact information for Virginia’s elected officials. Follow this link to get their email address, phone number, Twitter handle, and Facebook page information. You can sign up to speak at the hearing by following this link! 

Here are some sample Tweets

“Please vote no on SB 1164, don’t sell Virginia’s future to the petrochemical industry. Protect vulnerable communities!”

“Would you put a chemical conversion facility in your district? Then vote no on SB 1164 which is a sneaky way of allowing this sort of thing with minimal permitting”

Here is a sample email

“Good afternoon XXXX,

I am your constituent at (insert address). I oppose SB 1164. Virginians have worked extremely hard to ensure our future is not intertwined with fossil fuels. Enabling fossil fuel facilities to expand in Virginia is not only a danger to our air and water quality, fossil fuel facilities around the country disproportionately impact the most vulnerable communities”

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

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

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

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

Here is how you can help stop this today!

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

Virginia Grassroots provides access to an excellent spreadsheet with all the contact information for Virginia’s elected officials. Follow this link to get their email address, phone number, Twitter handle, and Facebook page information. 

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

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

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

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

Here are sample Tweets

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

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

Here is a sample email

“Good afternoon XXXX,

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

General Assembly Action Alert!

The 2021 General Assembly is moving fast and we’ve got another action alert! House Bill 2159, which will ban the intentional release of balloons is going to be heard by the House Agriculture and Natural Resources- Natural Resources Subcommittee tomorrow (1/20). The subcommittee hearing starts at 7 am. Pushing through the ban on intentional balloon releases will be a great way to start the day! The current Virginia law allows for 49 balloons to be released every hour. The 2020 bill to ban all intentional releases failed in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, it is critical we all make our voices head this year!

The General Assembly is all virtual this year, and that makes it much easier to be an active participant- no more rushing to drive to Richmond to make sure your voice is heard! Use this link to provide written comments about why you want intentional balloon releases banned in Virginia. You can also use the same link to sign up to speak during the committee meeting. There are full talking points provided by Christina Trapani of Eco Maniac Company and Mark Swingle of the Virginia Aquarium & Science Center available here! If you want to see comments other people have made, follow this link!

Summary of HB 2159

Release of balloon prohibited; civil penalty. Prohibits any individual 13 years of age or older or other person, including a corporation, from intentionally releasing, discarding, or causing to be released or discarded any nonbiodegradable balloon outdoors and provides that any person convicted of such violation is liable for a civil penalty of $25 per balloon, to be paid into the Game Protection Fund. Current law prohibits a person from knowingly releasing 50 or more such balloons within an hour and sets the civil penalty at $5 per balloon, with the proceeds deposited into the Lifetime Hunting and Fishing Endowment Fund.

Conservation Easements:
Although not litter or plastic specific there is another important bill that is supported by the Virginia Conservation Network also being heard in this hearing, and we encourage positive comments for it as well. HB 1760 ensures that courts protect conservation easements when the land is sold to a new owner. This would close the loophole on people taking advantage of conservation easements who then go against everything they stand for. Conservation easements are designed to protect land, and they specifically prohibit development. We once saw a speaker at a conference brag about getting Virginia law changed so she could develop land that had been bought at a reduced price because of a conservation easement. This easement became a full on tourist attraction, rather than a farm designed to protect Virginia’s natural spaces. Protect the Occoquan Watershed has a great write up about conservation easements. You can read talking points here for HB 1760 provided by the Piedmont Environmental Council and the Nature Conservancy on the Virginia Conservation Network website.    

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.