Plastic Bag Bills
2019 Virginia General Assembly

Caution: Danger of suffocation for plastic bag bills in the Virginia General Assembly!

The 2019 Virginia General Assembly saw several litter-related bills defeated in both the Senate and House of Delegates, tossed out like trash and washing in tatters down a Richmond storm drain. The Friends of Accotink Creek urge everyone to support bills like these that are most relevant to keeping trash out of our waters:

Read the text of the bills and track their progress to their final defeat using the guide ↓ below ↓ provided by our friends in Litter Free Virginia

See Friends of Accotink Creek General Assembly letters & testimony in support of plastic bag bills.

Some text you can use as a model. Modify or personalize as appropriate:

The Friends of Accotink Creek urge your support for HJ597, HB2095 , HB2159, SB193, SB1070, and SB1116, to control the sale of disposable plastic bags. We strongly endorse and support efforts like this to reduce trash in local watersheds. As a Virginia legislator, we encourage you to support the work of your many constituents who participate in stream cleanups, by voting for these bills.

Each year Friends of Accotink Creek and other civic groups mobilize volunteers who clean tons of plastic bags and containers, as well as other trash and debris, from streams that feed into the Chesapeake Bay. Across the United States, millions of tons of plastic waste is washed from streets into waterways, fouling waters for both marine life and human usage.

Reducing consumer consumption of plastic bags, by means of bans, restrictions, and/or taxes, is an effective way to reduce the amount of plastic trash that enters our watersheds, and flows downstream to the Potomac River, and the Chesapeake Bay. Besides being an eyesore and a burden to remove, this noxious litter refuses to go away, only breaking down into toxic particles that will be with us forever.

- January 12, 2018

Let's get the bags out of Accotink Creek!