ROUNDUP: Plastic Production

On Thursday, April 7th Governor Youngkin signed Executive Order 17. Straight out of the American Chemistry Council playbook, the Executive Order “encourages the use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) products,” incentivizing increased production of single-use plastics in order to develop waste centers. The Executive Order also revokes former Governor Northam’s Executive Order 77, the state’s ongoing plan to phase-out on single-use plastics from public agencies and institutions, including colleges and universities.

The fact is that the best way to keep plastic waste out of our environment is to stop producing it. Executive Order 17 encourages more plastic production by ending equitable, well-considered plans to phase out single-use plastic in Virginia. Simultaneously, it incentivizes waste production so that industrial waste facilities can make more money.

plastic waste in waterSee our breakdown below of why Executive Order 17 is a threat to our environment and to the health of our communities:

It incentivizes more plastic waste.

A major concern coming from the EO is that there needs to be more waste to actually spur the development of waste facilities. The Executive Order directs state agencies to find “opportunities for attracting PCR product business entities to the Commonwealth,” including ways to “capture more recyclable materials.”In layman’s terms, the Governor wants to ensure there is enough plastic waste for his “new clean technology” and waste centers. Without more plastic, there cannot be any “new clean technology.”

Ultimately, Youngkin’s Executive Order favors plastic polluters’ profits at the expense of Virginia’s environment and health. You may have heard that plastic has been found in our drinking water and the depths of our ocean. More recently, doctors have reported plastics being found in living humans’ lungs and blood stream. We need to reduce plastic now more than ever, but Governor Youngkin is pointing Virginia in the wrong direction.

Chemical Conversion, aka “advanced recycling,” is an unproven, failed-to-scale industry.

The Executive Order calls to “develop clean technologies,” which is just a new, fresh name for an old beast: chemical conversion. The American Chemistry Council readily applies the greenwashed term “advanced recycling” for chemical conversion.

Chemical conversion is the process of superheating plastics to chemically convert them to fuels. Chemical conversion is a high-cost, energy-intensive, and risky process. When plastics are superheated, they release over half of their carbon content as greenhouse gasses along with toxic materials such as lead, arsenic, mercury, BPA, cadmium, benzene, brominated compounds, phthalates, tin, antimony, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Rather than reducing plastic waste, chemical conversion will allow the plastic industry to continue to create more plastic and release more greenhouse gases.

To make it worse, chemical conversion is an exploitative industry, exacting its most damaging impacts on historically underserved and under-represented communities: 80% of chemical conversion facilities are located in low-income communities and communities of color. These facilities expose residents to harmful particulates that cause cancer, respiratory illnesses, and neurological disorders. Executive Order 17 further seeks to develop these facilities with a “particular emphasis in rural areas.”

Chemical conversion is also an unproven, fail-to-scale industry. Only three of the dozens of chemical conversion facilities nationwide are operational, none of which have successfully converted plastics back into plastics. The technological sophistication to operate these facilities on the scale that proponents intend simply does not exist today. In fact, by all accounts, this technology will not be ready for up to a decade.

It will cost taxpayers money.

Not only has Governor Youngkin’s proposed solution of “clean technologies” been proven to fail, but he also expects taxpayers to bolster the industry. The EO seeks to “identify incentives offered to recycling centers,” which will use taxpayer money to build facilities owned by plastics industry companies.

It eliminates our best plan to reduce plastic waste.

The bottom line of Executive Order 17 (literally) is to nullify Virginia’s ongoing work to authentically reduce plastic waste. Governor Northam’s Executive Order 77 provided state agencies, colleges, and universities a plan to phase out single-use plastic and styrofoam. If Governor Youngkin truly wanted to fix our waste crisis, he would not revoke Virginia’s best plan to eliminate harmful plastic pollution.

Recycling has failed us – plastic is being found in our bodies, in our drinking water, in our food,  and at the depths of the ocean. The Chesapeake Bay Program states that microplastics pose a potential serious risk to successful restoration of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which the state has already allocated over a billion dollars to accomplish. Rather than pushing downstream approaches to solve our waste crisis, we encourage the Youngkin administration to work with the conservation community to enforce proven methods that will meaningfully and equitably reduce Virginia’s contributions to the plastic waste glut.

There are better, proven methods to reduce plastic waste.

To protect our health, water, and wildlife from plastic pollution, we need to eliminate harmful single-use plastics, require producers to take on recycling responsibility, and invest in programs to prevent and remove litter from our waterways and environment.

This past General Assembly session our partners advocated for an “Extended Producer Responsibility” (EPR) bill. The bill would have shifted the costs associated with waste management and recycling to the producers of waste, rather than local communities. For too long, taxpayers have paid, while the major producers of waste have not.

VCN also supports a state “bottle bill.” In Virginia, bottles and cans account for nearly 22% of all litter. A proven way to reduce this is to establish a beverage container deposit program (“bottle bill”). Bottle bills, which rely on deposits to incentivize consumers and retailers, not only reduce litter – they also increase recycling, reduce energy use, and curb greenhouse gas emissions In states with container deposit bills, bottles and cans account (on average) for 8.69% of the total litter – significantly less than in Virginia.

Proven solutions exist that could measurably reduce plastic pollution and mis-managed solid waste in Virginia’s communities. See all of VCN’s policy recommendations in the “Reducing Single-Use Plastics, Litter, & Marine Debris” policy paper from Our Common Agenda.

See Policy Paper

Response from the Conservation Community

The Executive Order is out of sync with Virginians. More than ever, Virginians are aware of and concerned about plastic pollution in our rivers, the ocean, our food, and even our bodies. Virginians support legislation and policies that will lead to less plastic pollution. 

The Virginia Conservation Network will continue to advocate for plastic waste reduction on behalf of Virginians. See statements from our Network Partners below regarding the Governor’s proposed gas tax suspension. Please check back as we continue to receive VCN partner statements.

Last updated April 11th, 2022

Environment Virginia

Elly Boehmer, State Director

“Gov. Youngkin’s Executive Order 17 is disappointing. While it is important that we address food waste and improve recycling, we must first reduce our single-use plastic consumption – and this executive order swings and misses by undoing the previous administration’s ban on single-use plastics in our state agencies, state parks and public colleges and universities. 

Single-use plastics are difficult and costly to recycle and most commonly end up as littered items strewn across our environment. No matter how much bluster we’ve heard otherwise, we have seen that we cannot recycle our way out of this issue without decreasing our plastic usage. 

We are disappointed in this step backwards. We urge state agencies, state parks and colleges and universities to remain single-use plastics free while also examining ways to reduce food waste. And we hope to work with the administration to improve recycling in Virginia through proven solutions like a bottle bill or a ‘producer pays’ framework.”

Sierra Club Virginia Chapter

Kate West, Director

“The notion that recycling is a sustainable solution is a false promise promoted by polluters. Youngkin’s decision to reverse the state’s plan to phase out single-use plastics is a clear step in the wrong direction that will result in irreversible damage. Only a tiny fraction of the plastic created is recycled, with most becoming litter and plastic pollution in our waterways and landfills that disproportionately impact the health of vulnerable communities. 

This executive order shows Virginia residents, once again, that Glenn Youngkin cares more about lining the pockets of polluters than protecting the health of our communities.” Read more.

Potomac Riverkeeper Network

Nancy Stoner, President

“Single use plastics are a growing source of pollution in our region, with microplastics now commonly found in our air, water and shockingly our own bodies. While responsible recycling must be part of the solution, we must focus on reducing our use of single use plastic to truly make a difference for the health of our environment, both now and in the future. This repeal is a huge step backward for the Commonwealth; it actually encourages the production of more, not less, plastic waste to fuel new “recycling” initiatives, and it would offer taxpayer funded incentives to urge unproven, polluting industries to come to Virginia and sell their snake oil solutions to our plastics problem. To add insult to injury, Youngkin’s Order is a blatant favor to the fossil fuel and chemical industries which are fighting to increase our reliance on single use plastic.”

Clean Virginia Waterways

Katie Register, Executive Director

“Governor Youngkin’s Executive Order #17 takes Virginia in exactly the wrong direction by reversing efforts to decrease plastic pollution in Virginia. Virginians are increasingly concerned about plastic pollution in our waterways, ocean, food, and even in our bodies. In the last two weeks, new research has found evidence of plastic in humans’ bloodstream and deep in lungs. How can anyone support the production of more plastic waste?

“The right thing to do is address the sources of plastic pollution by decreasing production and use of single-use items that so often become litter – bags, bottles, caps, food containers. We clearly need to “turn off the faucet” of plastic waste. This E.O. does nothing to decrease the production and use of single-use plastic items that are used for a few minutes, but will be with us forever. Under a previous executive order, universities, state parks, and state agencies were making progress to eliminate single-use plastic items that contribute to litter and ocean plastic pollution. It can be done!”

Virginia Interfaith Power & Light

Rev. Dr. Faith Harris, Co-Director

“Governor Youngkin’s decision to reverse Governor Northam’s EO 77 Virginia Leading by Example to Reduce Plastic Pollution and Solid Waste is an antiquated approach that will threaten the health of fenceline communities across the state. We are baffled by this administration’s obsession to resurrect the worst practices of the 20th-century created by the beverage industry.  

Reducing single-use of plastics among government-controlled entities is to address is a minimum common-sense effort to address the climate crisis.”

Clean Fairfax

Jen Cole, Executive Director

“Executive Order 17 is an engraved invitation for petrochemical companies, with the backing of private equity firms like the Carlyle Group (Governor Youngkin’s employer before he became Governor) to develop new facilities in Virginia on the taxpayers’ dime. Multiple references to “new clean energy jobs” and “new clean technology jobs” are a dog whistle to the advanced recycling industry. This industry has already fleeced Virginia taxpayers for a minimum of $215,000 for a Braven Environmental facility that is no longer going to be built. If these polluting plastic to fuel “recycling” facilities are built in rural areas where there are already challenges with infrastructure, the folks who live there will have to deal with truck traffic plus worse air and water quality–all in the name of a cleaner environment? Or is this what the kids today call ‘a feature, not a bug?” Economic development and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive, y’all.

Here’s the thing, industry professionals and environmentalists alike have been singing the same song for years–we cannot recycle our way out of this crisis–the plastic pollution nightmare has microplastics found in drinking water, our food, our blood, and in our lungs. The only solution to less plastic in our environment is, not surprisingly, less plastic.  While microplastics and the universality of plastic pollution is daunting, we think turning more plastic into a toxic soup of fossil fuels and calling it “recycling” is the real, scary reality that the Executive Order sets the stage for.” Read more.

James River Association

“Unfortunately, Governor Youngkin’s Executive Order 17 is out of touch with what we know about preventing plastics from harming our waterways and our health: the best way to keep plastic out of the James River and out of our bodies is to reduce our use of plastic in the first place. Instead, EO17 could result in more plastic waste being produced and used in the Commonwealth.”

Oceana

Caroline Wood, Mid-Atlantic Field Campaigns Manager

“We cannot recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis, especially not with polluting, unproven methods like chemical conversion. Not only are these technologies marked with fraud and failure, but they also produce greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change and generate dangerous contaminant streams that can pollute the environment and nearby communities. It is deeply concerning that Gov. Youngkin is rolling back real progress on plastic pollution and instead wasting valuable time and resources on a false solution that will incentivize even more plastic production, at the expense of our health and the health of our oceans.

The most effective way to stem the staggering amount of plastic waste that is flooding our planet is to enact policies governing plastic production and use. We hope we can work with the governor and his administration to find solutions that will actually reduce plastic production and result in less plastic pollution across the Commonwealth.”