Isle Be Green Program

Why is plastic bag litter a problem?

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

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.

Program Specifics

Distribute and promote 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. Citizens may complete a recycling survey at the Fair and in exchange will receive an Isle Be Green reusable shopping bag. The bags did not arrive in time for the County Fair; however, we did receive them and held two bag exchange days at the Farm Fresh Supermarket in Smithfield.

The County has purchased a baler to bale the plastic collected from the County “dump” sites and the Smithfield Square Shopping Center. The County will then sell the plastic film to Trex.

The County has 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 winning school, Windsor Elementary, will receive a pizza party and a Trex bench on June 8 and 9, 2010. To kick-off this event, the County, along with Farm Fresh and Trex, attended the elementary school open houses on September 3, 2009, and shared information about the program and the recycling competition.

A website, www.islebegreen.com, was created by Ringer/rg pro bono for this project. In addition, a Twitter account has been established and has over 290 followers.

Establish credible measurement 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 will 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.