Photo: Laysan Albatross, Steven Siegel/American Bird Conservancy
Jessica Bigger
Zach Huntington used to guide fishing tours out on the Potomac. While floating along the river in his kayak, he started noticing a significant amount of habitat loss and a glaring volume of garbage washing up on the shores and islands of the Potomac. After four years of watching the river’s native habitat decrease and shoreline garbage accumulate, Huntington decided to take action. “I wanted to take an active role in protecting what I enjoy so much,” he explained.
Huntington is now the Clean Streams Program Manager for Clean Fairfax. Clean Fairfax is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to educate Fairfax County citizens on how to prevent and reduce the amount of litter each person generates. The organization also oversees several cleanups each year. Most recently he has been monitoring ten storm drain sites to keep track of specific trash flowing into our streams and rivers that eventually flows to the Chesapeake Bay and ultimately ends in the Atlantic Ocean.
There are about one million people living in Fairfax County. It is estimated that each person generates 320 bags of garbage each year. That’s 320 million bags of garbage dumped into our landfills. In the entire state of Virginia, where we have a population of 8.5 million people, if each person contributed 320 bags of garbage per year, it would amount to more than 2.72 billion bags of trash.
The biggest culprit is plastics. Plastics, coursing through all our waterways and culminating in our oceans, harm marine animals in a variety of ways. Some of the most harmful trash found in our waterways and oceans is single-use plastics: water bottles, plastic bags from grocery stores, Styrofoam cups and containers, microbeads used in cosmetic products, straws, balloons, wrappers and plastic rings from soda and beer cans. Discarded fishing gear is another gigantic problem.
Per year, Fairfax County’s residents and workers, have used more than 965,000,000 plastic bags (only 2% recycled), 129,000,000 water bottles (23-37% recycled) and 250,000 disposable coffee cups (not recyclable), according to Clean Fairfax who pulled the data from Fairfax County in 2017. And most likely these numbers have increased.
According to the Ocean Conservancy, plastics affect more than 700 marine species. 180 bird species ingest plastic from oceans and beaches and the rate of consumption is only increasing, according to the American Bird Conservancy. In a study published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin in 2018, researchers collected plastics from the stomach contents of 24 American Oyster Catchers between 2007 and 2015. 58% of the birds were juveniles. They found plastic pellets and smaller plastic pieces in the stomach contents of all 24 birds.
Other marine birds have also been found with microplastics in their gut: albatross species, Kelp Gulls, Red Phalaropes, Common Eiders, most shearwater species and petrels. Some researchers believe that these birds, and many others, are attracted to the smell of certain plastics, mistaking the aroma for food. Plastics tend to build up and block a bird’s digestive system, making it difficult to feed, and plastics have contributed to lower body weight and reproductive ability, noted the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Other birds, like Ospreys and Northern Gannets use plastic waste to line their nests, which their young get tangled in.
In particular, single-use plastic bags, 6-pack plastic holders, party balloons and discarded fishing gear have had devastating effects for all marine life but especially sea turtles, whales and most seabirds. These items have caused numerous fatalities, as marine animals get tangled up and unable to free themselves. Even locally at Dyke Marsh, a birder found several dead Great Blue Herons. One Great Blue Heron was found strangled by fishing gear, hanging by its neck in a tree. So, these events aren’t just happening in other parts of the world, they’re happening closer to home.
Although we have environmentally conscious people cleaning up our shores and waterways and reducing their own plastics use; it is impossible to keep up with the plastics output. Huntington believes that the only way to make significant progress is through local and national legislation that forces the plastic producers to not only take responsibility for their output, but to also reduce or eliminate the amount of plastics they push onto the market. “With the amount of waste that we’re creating locally and in our society in general; there is no way we can handle it. We have to cut it from the source,” concludes Huntington.
Litter Free Virginia keeps track of all trash reduction legislation happening right now to help citizens stay informed and encourage them to get involved. Just this year, with the effort of numerous individuals and organizations, the state of Virginia finally raised its litter tax after 43 years. Now municipalities across the state have the option to charge a 5-cent fee for single-use plastic bags.
Want to help? You can do your part by contacting your local, state and federal representatives to express your concerns and push them to write legislation to make large plastic producing companies accountable for their actions. On the local level, you can help by getting involved in cleanups, bringing your own reusable bags, ditching plastic bags to hold your produce and drinking from a reusable water bottle (preferably stainless steel or aluminum). To learn more about getting involved, you can visit , and Friends of Dyke Marsh. Let’s work towards a better future for our birds, wildlife, planet and for us.