This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In recycling news, higher commodity prices boosted recycling revenues for Waste Management, Republic Services and North America’s other largest haulers last year, according to earnings reports.

But the big local news is that a Virginia law that will ban all restaurants and food vendors from using polystyrene food containers by July 2025 is on its way to the governor.

Under the legislation, which has been carried by Oregon Hill’s representative, Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, two years running, large restaurants and food vendors — defined as those that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations — will have until July 1, 2023, to stop dispensing food in polystyrene containers. Smaller businesses will have an extra two years to comply with the law, with a deadline of July 1, 2025. Violations would be subject to a civil penalty of up to $50 per day.

The General Assembly’s senate also amended the original bill to extend the ban from businesses to local governments, schools and nonprofits, a change Carr said would level the playing field. Keep in mind, if the Governor approves the bill, it will still be four years and four months before that takeout carton from your local diner is guaranteed to be polystyrene free. And containers with unprepared foods, like eggs, will not banned.