Isle Be Green Program
What is Isle Be Green?
Isle Be Green started in 2009 as a plastic bag recycling initiative. Over the years the program has gained momentum and ultimately has become the County’s recycling initiative. In essence, Isle Be Green is the one-stop-shop for all things recycling in Isle of Wight County. So, if you want to know about what, where, and how to recycle, look here.
Background of the Program:
How the program started
Isle of Wight County’s agricultural community has been greatly impacted by plastic bag litter. The plastic becomes entangled in crops, mainly cotton, and contaminates it. This “trash” cannot be eliminated through the ginning process causing the grade, or quality, of the cotton to be reduced. The County is also aware that a calf died after ingesting a plastic bag, which was littered onto a farmer’s pasture. Plastic bag litter also has negative impacts on the health of the Chesapeake Bay, economic activity, and the aesthetic appeal of local communities throughout Hampton Roads.
Our Solution to the Bag Problem
Isle of Wight County, along with the Virginia Retail Federation, formed the Virginia Plastic Bag Coalition to examine the issues related to plastic bags. Members of this coalition include the Retail Alliance, the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, HR Clean, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, local governments, plastic bag recyclers, plastic bag manufacturers, and many others. After much research and analysis, the Coalition recognized that consumer behavior must change if there is to be a decrease in the amount of plastic bag litter in Isle of Wight County.
Reducing plastic bag litter with the assistance of a grant
The County was awarded a grant from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in the amount of $28,000 to implement a pilot plastic bag recycling project within the County. This pilot project is the first of its kind in the Commonwealth and hopefully will be a model for other localities.
Plastic Bag Program Specifics
The County distributed and promoted the sale and use of reusable shopping bags to shoppers at their visits to grocery, convenience and other retail stores throughout the County. The County printed 500 reusable bags to distribute at the event kick-off event on August 5, 2009, and ordered an additional 3,000 reusable bags to distribute at the County Fair to promote the program. The County continues to distribute reusable bags at the County Fair and various bag giveaway events throughout the year.
The County purchased a baler to bale the plastic collected from the County “dump” sites and the Smithfield Square Shopping Center. The County sells the plastic film to Trex Company.
The County partnered with Trex and Farm Fresh to create a plastic bag collection competition in all five (5) elementary schools in Isle of Wight County. The County continues to operate a competition annually with prizes varying each year from a school-wide pizza party to cash prizes for “green” projects and Trex benches. Windsor Elementary has won the competition each year for three years.
This website, www.islebegreen.com, was created by Ringer/rg pro bono for this project. In addition, a Twitter account has been established.
The County sought to establish credible measurements of the amount of plastic bag litter and number of bags recycled in the County. The County conducted three litter surveys specific to plastic bags. These surveys were conducted with the assistance of HR Clean utilizing the Keep America Beautiful model. The County continues to keep records with the amount of plastic collected at all of the collection points as well as through the school collection program.
Reports:
To view the mid-term grant report to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, click here.
To view the final grant report to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, click here.
Cigarette Litter Grant
Keep Virginia Beautiful awarded Isle of Wight County a $750 cigarette litter prevention program grant in 2012. This grant money has been used to purchased pocket ashtrays along with cigarette disposal receptacles for the Town of Smithfield. Additionally, the County created an educational brochure about the harmful effects of cigarette litter.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I am very proud of the efforts that IOW and the sponsoring organizations like the South Hampton Roads RC&D Council have done to make this project a reality. Keep up the good work!
I am proud to be a homeowner in the Isle Of Wight and am very excited about this program. As a former resident of Massachusetts where multiple recycling options were easily available I am encouraged by this effort. Is there any possibility to reinstate a mandantory bottle deposit to help reduce the amount of plastic bottles I see littering the beautiful coastline????
Hello!
I also am a resident of the area and I am so glad to hear about this program. I have been researching programs all over, in college classes on sustainability and government planning and through internships and networking. This is exciting to see a localized program right here involved in greening the area and providing for a sustainable future. Never underestimate the power of action on a smaller scale!
Is there any way that I can become involved? I am very passionate about creating a sustainable future and I would love to be of service in any way I can.
Thanks so much and keep up the good work,
Sara Garver
Hi Sara!
Thanks so much for praising our efforts. We are very excited about this program and the opportunity to expand our recycling program at some point in the future to more things.
Thank you for your offer to help out! The best way to assist is to spread the word. The biggest challenge for us is getting the word out because our grant funds do not allow us to advertise, yet that is the best way to change consumer behavior. We’re always looking for new ideas, so please feel free to share them with us. We do have some activities coming up that you can certainly participate in if you’d like. I’ll contact you to discuss those!
Thanks,
Rachel
I am thrilled to see this greening effort in Isle of Wight County, and I commend everyone involved in it. However, as a potential future resident of the county breaking into the agricultural roots of the area with a natural farm, I find the first paragraph on this page rather ironic: “Plastic bags are damaging the crops we are spraying tons of chemicals on.”
Make no mistake, I absolutely believe that this program is 100% necessary, and again I am very happy to see it coming to fruition. However, I believe the backwards nature of the drive for it as expressed in the first paragraph shows the disconnect between commodity “farmers” and their surroundings. Hopefully someday we’ll get a “quit polluting our groundwater and using commodity crops to destroy the soil we could be actually feeding ourselves with” drive as well
I will spread the word about this initiative for sure, and thank you to Ringer/rg for their pro-bono work for this cause! The site is very clean and looks great.
I agree with Jared…Ringer/rg deserves a great big hand for creating such high end design for the website and the beautiful reusable shopping bags.
I also completely agree with Jared’s important point of truth and consquences:
Make no mistake, I absolutely believe that this program is 100% necessary, and again I am very happy to see it coming to fruition. …
the first paragraph shows the disconnect between commodity “farmers” and their surroundings. Hopefully someday we’ll get a “quit polluting our groundwater and using commodity crops to destroy the soil we could be actually feeding ourselves with” drive as well.
May our children and their children see that day.