Virginia is drowning in trash, but our state is not alone. Communities across the U.S. and the world are grappling with the consequences of our culture of convenience and we must confront this challenge head on before it is too late. The US still lags decades behind in coming to grips with our overwhelming waste problem and we have not made necessary reforms to the policies that exist to perpetuate the status quo. Unfortunately, one prime example of an antiquated and detrimental policy exists right here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Commonwealth still relies on a litter study, done almost half a century ago, to drive the way we fund litter identification, removal, and avoidance today.
Virginia uses an outdated, underfunded system that leaves taxpayers on the hook for cleaning the litter created by big businesses and corporations. The system has not evolved to reflect the needs of communities around the state and the original methodology for the creation of the tax has not been thoroughly reviewed. Virginia’s litter tax is based on limited data from a 46-year-old study that included only two miles of roadway in the state. In a 1979 status report, Stephen Runkle, the author of the original study stated, “It should be understood that the results as discussed herein pertain to the twenty sites mentioned, and should not necessarily be generalized to apply to the entire Virginia highway system; i.e., the twenty sites are not considered a statistical sampling from which generalizations about the entire highway system can be made with stated levels of confidence.” [i] Despite the author’s admission of the study’s limitations and his recommendation that the results should not be applied generally, Virginia has continued to use this study as the baseline for its entire litter reduction strategy for the past 46 years.
Failing to update the report has left Virginia looking backwards, using a strategy developed for an entirely different era to address the reality on the ground today. The litter analyzed in the original study has little relevance to the litter that we encounter across Virginia communities in 2019. For example, 46 years ago, aluminum cans were the most common type of litter found, comprising 38% of all litter found in the outdated study. [ii] Over the past two years of monitoring litter, however, Clean Fairfax has found that food and beverage litter accounts for more than 50% of litter floating in area waterways. The prolific nature of aluminum has been replaced by an abundance of plastic bags, polystyrene food containers, plastic cutlery, food wrappers, and plastic bottles. Plastic is pervasive in the world. It destroys farmer’s crops, causes flooding, harms wildlife, and breaks down into microplastics and nanoplastics which infiltrate the food chain.
Virginia is underfunded and ill-equipped to handle the flow of litter that is polluting our roads, neighborhoods, and waterways. Unlike most fees and costs that we encounter in our daily lives, the litter tax has not been adjusted for inflation since its inception over 45 years ago. In FY2019, the litter tax resulted in revenue of $1,907,251[iii], which is about $0.22 per Virginia resident spent by litter producing companies to clean up the problem they are creating. However, the litter tax is not only paid by plastic manufacturers, it is paid by every company that manufactures, wholesales, distributes, or sells products from fourteen categories. These fourteen categories are: food for human or pet consumption, groceries, tobacco products, soft drinks and carbonated water, alcoholic beverages, newspapers and magazines, motor vehicle parts, paper products, glass containers, metal containers, plastic or synthetic fibers, cleaning products, non-drugstore sundry products, and distilled spirits. Laundromats and auto repair shops pay into a separate tax, but do not pay into the litter tax[iv]. While not a panacea for the challenges Virginia faces, adjusting the litter tax for inflation could provide over $8 million to fund litter prevention, reduction, and recycling efforts across the Commonwealth.
The litter tax, for how little it raises, manages to create an incredible return on investment, thanks to the efforts of over 50 municipalities and organizations that add value and in-kind contributions to the small pool of money distributed. For example, in 2018 local programs contributed an additional $22,653,113 to the $1,782,129 awarded as grants from the litter fund. In an average year, program managers, non-profits, and municipalities organize over 5500 community cleanups, with over 45,000 volunteers, picking up almost 75,000 cubic yards of trash. This is the best return on investment of any tax in the Commonwealth. But it isn’t enough to deal with the extraordinary amounts of litter throughout the state.
Rather than providing adequate funding or crafting legislation that would stop the flow of litter into our local waterways and parks, the Commonwealth continues to put the burden on taxpayers who are already paying to keep their communities clean. Businesses pay a token tax once a year but these citizens are paying twice – both through normal collection of state and local sales and property taxes, and then again with their time spent volunteering to address litter hot spots in their neighborhoods and parks. VDOT estimates that it spends $6 million a year picking up litter on roadways [v](not including its Adopt-A-Highway program), yet again putting the responsibility of cleaning up the highways on the backs of taxpayers. This only scratches the surface of the overall economic impact of a broken system that has led to a widespread litter problem in the Commonwealth.
When compared to the litter tax in other states, it is evident just how far Virginia lags behind other states with similar populations struggling with litter issues.
- The Tennessee litter tax generated $5.6 million in 2018 [vi]with a population of 6.77 million.
- The Washington state litter tax brings in $10 million every year to be used for litter clean up and remediation [vii]with population of 7.536 million.
- The Nebraska litter tax generates about $1.5 million annually [viii]with a population of 1.92 million.
The current format of the Virginia litter tax allows large corporations to pollute our state with little reason to alter their operations. Walmart has 152 locations in Virginia and their contribution to the litter tax is only $3,800 annually. Giant has 57 locations across Virginia, only contributing $1,425 to the litter tax every year. 7-11, one of the largest convenience store chains in Virginia with 723 locations in the state, only contributes $18,075 to support litter reduction and recycling programs in Virginia.
The foundation of transformational and sustainable policy solutions is good data. Data informed policy making requires a commitment to consistent data collection that recognizes the need to stay flexible and adapt to changes to the environment. To develop the necessary data, Virginia must gain a better understanding of the litter issues the state is currently facing. To obtain this understanding, Virginia needs to update the original study from 1976 that helped craft the litter tax and develop a schedule to keep updating and integrating the data into the current calculation formula. HJ 89 includes a proposal to require the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) study the economic impact of litter on fishing, farming, and water quality in urban streams. This study would provide the Commonwealth with the data necessary to craft a long-term litter reduction policy solution.
Virginia must make significant changes to systemically address litter reduction. These changes include:
- Raising the litter tax to keep up with both inflation and the increase in plastic pollution;
- Allow for local option single use bag fees and single use plastic bans to enable local governments to independently decide whether imposing a fee or ban on single-use plastic products is best the approach for their own communities.
- Signing into law House Joint Resolution 89 to study the economic impact of litter across the Commonwealth.
The changes we propose above will help Virginia achieve a circular economy that is critical to stopping the flow of litter into our neighborhoods, parks and waterways. The responsibility for keeping Virginia beautiful rests with individuals, government agencies, legislators, and businesses, and when half of the team is not pulling their weight, the system fails. While there are statutory and regulatory changes that may take time, Governor Northam and the legislature, as well as County Governments have an opportunity to take action and lead by example by enacting some easy internal policy changes, such as ending the use of single use plastics at state- and county-sponsored events. This small step would be a great down-payment on the future.
If Virginia wants to be a leader in business, education, and quality of life it has to look at this 45 year old litter study and taxation scheme, update both and work to be proactive instead of reactive because no one wants to work, learn, or live in a garbage dump.
[i] Runkle, S (1979). VTRC Report Details. Retrieved from http://vtrc.virginiadot.org/PubDetails.aspx?PubNo=80-R23
[ii] Runkle, S (1979). VTRC Report Details. Retrieved from http://vtrc.virginiadot.org/PubDetails.aspx?PubNo=80-R23
[iii] Litter Prevention and Recycling Grant Programs. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.deq.virginia.gov/Programs/LandProtectionRevitalization/RecyclingandLitterPreventionPrograms/LitterPreventionandRecyclingGrantPrograms.aspx
[iv] Litter Tax. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.tax.virginia.gov/litter-tax
[v] Estimate from Northern Va VDOT Communications Manager.
[vi] 2019 Annual Litter Grant Report. (2019, Mar 29). Retrieved from https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/tdot/environmental/2019%20Litter%20Grant%20Report_P08(email).pdf
[vii] Lynn, A. (2017, April 20). It’s called the ‘litter’ tax, but half goes to Washington state parks instead of roadside cleanup. Retrieved from https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article144860879.html
[viii] Litter Reduction and Recycling Grant Program. (2019). Retrieved from http://deq.ne.gov/NDEQProg.nsf/OnWeb/LRRGP
