Petition to the Arlington County Board from Arlington residents to Ban Single-Use Plastic Bags in Arlington, Virginia

• Whereas—over 90 percent of single-use plastic bags end up in solid waste or in streams, lakes, and oceans, as litter and harming sea life and the world ecology;
• the second leading man-made waste found in the world’s oceans and waters are plastic bags causing damage to sea and human life, and in 25 years there will be more plastic waste by weight than fish in the oceans;
• Arlington residents generate over 100 million single-use plastic bags a year, nearly all of which is never recycled;
• About 400 million tons of carbon emissions are wasted worldwide to produce plastic bags (more carbon than emitting from Britain);
• We the signed residents of Arlington Virginia therefore ask the Arlington County Board to ban single use plastic bags from commercial establishments in Arlington Virginia.

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Sponsored by the Arlington Greens, Arlington VA 22205. Email: Info@greensofarlington.org.
Website: www.greensofarlington.org March 2018

The evidence is overwhelming the environmental damage plastic bags do, and about two dozen countries, including developing countries like Kenya, and the entire state of California have banned them entirely. Consumers can readily shift to reusable grocery and shopping bags, and our streams, rivers and oceans are much cleaner. About 60 cities impose bag taxes, like Washington, D.C., but the best policy is to simply stop selling and producing a product that cannot degrade naturally nor be recycled easily. See Joseph Curtin, “Let’s Bag Plastic Bags,” the New York Times, March 4, 2018. Arlington County now refuses to accept plastic bags in recycling, and the amount recycled in the U.S. is negligible.

About 3 years ago, Arlington Greens asked the Arlington County Board to ban free plastic bags in commercial stores and restaurants. The Arlington Board refused to ban these bags from commercial establishments in Arlington, citing its fear that this ban would violate Virginia law. Greens however had written instructions from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality that a county ban is in fact legal under Virginia law. At least one major Arlington food retailer, Whole Foods, supported this ban as it has not distributed plastic bags in about a decade.

Every year the Arlington County Government asks for community volunteers to get out and help pull out waste from our streams and parks. This is real hypocrisy given that it is far more effective to prevent litter than clean it up futilely each year. Plastic bags–followed by Styrofoam containers–are one of the leading wastes found in our streams, parks and green space. It is far far better to simply ban their use in Arlington, than each year go out and try to pull out bags from rocks, and branches; most of the bags end up in the Potomac River and our oceans. Degraded plastic bag pieces or microplastics end up in our drinking water, and poisoning our fish, whales, turtles and sea birds.

Arlington County is small but since the average American consumer uses 500 plastic bags a year, we collectively generate about 110 million single-use plastic bags a year. We in Arlington should be leading the way in Virginia towards a sustainable future that has no place for killer plastic bags.

Arlington Greens Audrey Clement and Miriam Gennari spoke at the county board hearing on Jan. 27, 2015 urging the board to strengthen the proposed ordinance on solid waste and recycling at apartments and businesses in Arlington. Gennari spoke to the board and presented the AGP position on improving recycling and solid waste management in Arlington as follows:

Unfortunately, the county board refused to heed the requests of Arlington Greens to modify the proposed ordinance and unfortunately single use plastic bags and Styrofoam will continue to litter our environment and be burned in our trash burn facility emitting dangerous gases. Billions of plastic bags litter our oceans, streams and planet, and Arlington Government once again passed up an opportunity to eliminate a harmful and unnecessary pollutant.

Position of the Arlington Greens on the proposed ordinance

January 27, 2015

Dear Esteemed Arlington County Board Members:

The Arlington Green Party is excited that the Arlington County Board is looking to improve its already successful residential solid waste program. Like all programs, there is always room for improvement and the Arlington Greens would greatly appreciate your consideration in the implementation of our suggestions.

Arlington County: Bans Plastic Bags
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality states that the County Board has the legal authority under Virginia law to ban single use plastic bags. The Dillon Rule does not bar the Arlington County Board from a “bag-ban” so long as taxes are not levied on bag use. In other words, Arlington County can ban plastic bags as a policy as long as it is not monetarily punitive.

Arlington County: Adopts a Styrofoam-Free Policy
Arlington County is as forward thinking as neighboring Washington, DC and Montgomery County and could be the ecologically correct example to the rest of Virginia in banning Styrofoam from Arlington County events. Further, events using independent coordinators could be required to follow Arlington County’s stricter standards of waste management.

Arlington County: Provides Additional Enforcement
As part of stricter waste management policy, we recommend more code enforcement personnel. These dedicated individuals are also tasked with safety enforcement such as the citation of “Inadequate lights at public corridors and stairways” in residential buildings and ensuring that individual property owners upkeep their homes and sidewalks, which neglected “might endanger the health or safety of other residents of the County.” It is clear that for these individuals to also adequately supervise commercial and multi-unit residential building recycling and waste management, the office of Code Enforcement would require additional staff.

Arlington County: Creates a Seal of Approval for Sustainable Practices
The Arlington Green Party is eager to collaborate with Arlington County Board and the Arlington County Department of Environmental Services to develop guidelines of sustainable and achievable practices. With this list of guidelines, new and existing businesses could be encouraged to implement concrete changes that would affect the environment in positive ways; these forward-thinking businesses could be commemorated or otherwise incentivized, luring consumers to Arlington County businesses.

Thank you for your consideration,
Marie Pellegrino Arlington Green Party Chair
Sandra Hernandez Arlington Green Party Co-Chair