On Earth Day, April 22, 2011, Arlington Greens asked the County Board to ban the use of carry out plastic bags and Styrofoam food containers at retail stores. Audrey Clements, treasurer of the Arlington Greens, announced the Greens’ petition to the County Board which included two model ordinances drawn from existing laws in the City of San Francisco, California.

The letter to the County Board is below:

Honorable Chris Zimmerman
Chairman, Arlington County Board
2100 Clarendon Blvd., Suite 300
Arlington, VA 22201 April 22, 2011

Dear Chairman Zimmerman:

The Arlington Green Party calls on Arlington County Board to adopt ordinances banning plastic bags in supermarkets and chain drugs stores and eliminate Styrofoam from food service outlets. The need has never been greater, since the EPA has called for a massive reduction in the waste that flows into the Chesapeake Bay watershed, much of it consisting of plastic bags and Styrofoam debris.

Arlington County has the authority to enact the bans because Section 10.1-1411 of Virginia Code authorizes municipalities to draw up plans to reduce waste, subject only to regulations from the Virginia Waste Management Board. Furthermore in an email to Arlington Greens on January 24, 2011, Cindy Berndt, Director of Regulatory Affairs for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), acknowledged that neither Virginia Code nor the Waste Management Board’s regulations stop a municipal bag ban as a form of waste management reduction.

County Board says it wants a tax on plastic bags like the one adopted by the District of Columbia in 2010 that reduced bag use by 80 percent. However, the Virginia General Assembly took that option off the table by recently defeating in committee two bills to tax plastic bags. As a result the county has no alternative other than a ban to reduce waste dumped into landfills and the Potomac River watershed.

In 2007 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted ordinances banning plastic bags and Styrofoam. The result, according to a 2008 NPR report, was the elimination of 5 million bags per month. The Arlington Green Party does not want to re-invent the wheel. We ask that Arlington County Board adopt the language of the San Francisco ordinances. The bans San Francisco enacted have stood the test of time and reduced waste in that great city. They can work here also. All it takes is a commitment to stop green washing and start greening Arlington County. Copies of the proposed ordinances and the email from DEQ are attached.

Sincerely yours,

John Reeder
Convener
Arlington Green Party
P.O. Box 50473 - Arlington, VA 22205
Email: [email protected]