Earth Day 2019

Monday was the 49th Earth Day and the Earth Day Network, the organization that leads Earth Day worldwide, has launched its Earth Day 2019 campaign, Protect Our Species. However, given the challenges of plastics pollution and the recent changes in recycling rules, Prince William County is maintaining our focus on reducing plastics pollution and plastics use.

Environmentalists tell us that plastics are responsible for a vast array of ills from poisoning and injuring marine life, disrupting animal and human hormones, littering beaches and landscapes and clogging our waste streams and landfills, the exponential growth of plastics is now threatening the survival of our planet.

Plastics that we use once and discard, or single-use plastics, are a growing critical problem of global proportion. Plastics are some of the most commonly littered items in the world and are most of what is collected on the spring river cleanups. Plastics are present in furniture, construction materials, cars, appliances, electronics and countless other things.

 Scientists studied the amount of plastics that have been manufactured since 1950’s and determined it’s fate and found that virtually all the plastic we ever made is non-degradable and is still with us. Much of the plastic ends up in landfills, or worn into smaller particles in the soil, in the ocean, or in our rivers, streams, lakes and estuaries.

The scientists estimated that more than 9,000 million metric tons of virgin plastics have been produced since the dawn of the age of plastics. As of 2015, approximately 6,300 million metric tons of plastic waste had been generated, around 9% of which had been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% was accumulated in landfills or the natural environment. The amount of plastic waste keeps growing. If we do not make some changes it will not be too long until we are all knee deep in plastic waste.

This year Prince William County will continue to emphasize reducing plastic waste and learning the new curbside recycling rules  ONLY THESE ITEMS CAN BE RECYCLED CURBSIDE:

• Plastics bottles and jugs:  #1 and #2 containers with necks including soda, water, juice, milk and detergent containers.  Rinse out containers.  Bottle caps may be replaced after rinsing.  No bottles that previously contained hazardous materials (such as oil, flammable materials, chemicals, etc.).    
• Aluminum and steel food and beverage cans and empty aerosol cans.   Empty and rinse out cans.
• Newspapers, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, office paper and paperboard boxes, such as cereal, cookie, cracker and tissue boxes.
• Cardboard (flattened and cut down to sizes up to 2 ft. X 2 ft. in size if taking to the drop-off trailers.)  Please note: large boxes may be taken to the County Landfill or Balls Ford Road Compost Facility. Do not include cardboard with food residue or plastic liners.  

Prince William County Landfill and Curbside recycling DO NOT ACCEPT:

• Plastic bags - accepted at most grocery stores
• Glass containers and jars, window glass, mirrors, light bulbs or ceramics
• Plastics 3 through 7 (such as yogurt, margarine and wide mouthed containers and buckets, styrofoam, bubble wrap, air pillows, etc.)