This Wednesday is a red Wednesday, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night. They do not belong on the sidewalk after tomorrow night.

In recycling news…

On March 26, 2014, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced publication of the latest annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), covering data reported for 2012. This year’s report lists types and amounts of chemicals released and reported by 419 industrial operations in the Commonwealth having 10 or more employees and reaching specific minimum amounts of toxic chemicals used (see p. 2 in the this year’s report Introduction for the list of criteria determining which operations must report).

According to the DEQ’s 3/26/14 news release on the TRI report, “32.7 million pounds of chemicals were released on-site to the air, water and land (a decrease of 16.7 percent from 2011); 65.3 million pounds of chemicals were transferred off-site for treatment, recycling, energy recovery or disposal (a 5-percent decrease from 2011); [and] 775 million pounds of chemicals were managed on-site by treatment, recycling, or energy recovery (a 3-percent increase from 2011).”

A more pointed point of view comes from a January 2014 study conducted by the University of Richmond’s School of Law- Robert R. Merhige Jr. Center for Environmental Studies: “A Strategy to Protect Virginians from Toxic Chemicals”.