Currently our local Richmond group meets once a month to discuss and develop ideas. We set up a table display at the Environmental Film Festival with handouts about ways to reduce plastic use and how to get more involved at the local level with sustainability programs. 

We are following and supporting legislation that will impose a 5 cent tax on single-use plastic bags in Virginia. This will stimulate the retail establishment to charge for bags or eliminate them and motivate consumers to bring their own.  As of 2020, eight states have banned single-use plastic bags and many more cities and municipalities have imposed charges on them, in a trend towards phasing out single-use plastic bags.

We are working with the Green Travel Alliance which provides materials that businesses can use to promote their sustainability practices. Check them out at www.virginiagreen.net. The green certification program qualifies restaurants, hotels, events and tourist destinations by asking them to self-evaluate their environmentally-friendly practices. These include using no Styrofoam take-out containers, providing straws only upon request, reduced use of plastic and non-recyclable materials, etc.  Once qualified, the business is awarded a certificate that they can display and publicize so that customers know they are supporting a “green” business.

• How Restaurants Can Prepare for Plastics Ban - Creating a Safer Environment 
• Top 10 Ways to Reduce Plastic Use

Click HERE to contact the Skip the Plastics RVA committee.