Those blue recycling bins that people rumble out to the curb on trash collection day seem ubiquitous around Fairfax County, but recycling rates vary greatly and in some cases are declining, according to the recent report from the Environmental Quality Advisory Council (EQAC). 

The Board of Supervisors committed to increase waste reuse and recycling. In the 2021 Community-wide Energy and Climate Action Plan, they set a target of 90 percent waste reduction by 2040. The Joint Environmental Task Force set a goal of 90 percent by 2030.

At-large EQAC member Eric Goplerud, author of the chapter on waste, said, “We need consistency in what can be recycled and accountability for actually recycling.”

    “Recycling is the process of collecting and processing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products,” states the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Fairfax County, for example, collects glass containers which get new lives as new bottles or as construction materials.  Paper and cardboard become new paper products. 

Recycling Rates

    In 2024, the overall recycling rate of all waste collected of 44.7 percent was four percent lower than the average of the last 10 years, 48.7 percent.  Recycled materials as a percent of overall waste fell by six percent. Paper and cardboard declined by 26 percent.    

“While Fairfax already recovers [recycles] significant amounts of yard waste (64 percent), construction debris (78 percent) and metals (over 50 percent), other major waste streams remain under-recycled,” reports EQAC. “Food waste is recovered at just five percent, paper at 25 percent, glass at 27 percent and waste wood at 31 percent. These materials make up a large portion of what is still burned and landfilled.”

There were “notable increases” in glass, food wastes, construction waste and metals. Though 27 percent of glass is recycled, “We’re still missing three quarters of the glass,” Gopelrud notes. Yard waste rates remained steady.

Recycling advocates boast that from 2022 to 2023 plastic bag use dropped 2.5 percent and five percent from 2023 to 2024. Many attribute this to the Board of Supervisors’ creation of a .05 per plastic bag tax that retail outlets began collecting in 2022 and generated $7.7 million between January 2022 and mid-2025.

By December 2024, even though over 3.4 million fewer bags were used, “That leaves a lot of bags, more than 32 million in 2024, still in circulation, still littering Fairfax streets, trees and waterways,” EQAC pointed out. 

Many Northern Virginia groceries collect plastic bags which are used to make composite decking and other materials by companies like the Winchester-based firm, Trex.

The Waste Management Hierarchy

    EPA’s website has a non-hazardous waste management hierarchy that ranks strategies from most to least environmentally preferred and emphasizes reducing, reusing, recycling and composting as “key to sustainable materials management.”

Reducing waste at the source is the most environmentally-preferred strategy.  This includes reusing or donating items, buying in bulk, reducing packaging, redesigning products and reducing toxicity. 

Next is recycling which includes collecting used, reused or unused items that would otherwise be considered waste; sorting and processing the recyclable products into raw materials; and remanufacturing the recycled raw materials into new products.  

Energy recovery is next, converting non-recyclable waste materials into usable heat, electricity or fuel, often called waste-to-energy. Lorton’s Reworld facility, for example, processes over 1,120,000 tons of waste and produces 93 megawatts of electricity around the clock, enough to power 67,000 homes for a year.

The least environmentally-preferred strategy is treatment and disposal. Treatment, like shredding and incineration, can help reduce waste’s volume and toxicity. Landfilling is the most common disposal method. 

    Fairfax County has two facilities: the I-66 Transfer Station and the I-95 Landfill Complex. 

How to Boost Recycling 

    EQAC made several recommendations, including state legislation to allow localities to require haulers to collect organic waste and to authorize local jurisdictions to mandate organic waste collection. Delegate Kathy Tran and Senator Scott Surovell have introduced bills to encourage composting.

EQAC also calls for state legislation to authorize counties and towns to ban disposable plastic bags.  

For more solutions, Gopelrud points to jurisdictions that require trash haulers to monitor bins for proper recycling and to reject non-compliant containers.  The county “could impose pay-to-throw,” he suggests, charge a fee for waste by weight or size. “The more mixed trash you throw in the bin the more you pay,” he explains. “We need to create incentives for people to do the right thing.”

Virginia does not have a “bottle bill” that requires a refundable deposit on some drink containers.

Some people promote extended producer responsibility, an approach that makes producers responsible for the end-of-life management of products. EQAC’s report is silent on this strategy.

     Matt Adams, a county waste management director, offered, “The biggest impediment to increasing the county’s recycling rate is insufficient and inconsistent participation from waste generators. Overcoming this requires a comprehensive approach that engages and supports all sectors. To make a meaningful difference, residents and businesses across the county need to do their part by actively diverting organics, recyclables, construction and demolition debris and hard-to-recycle materials." 

    Jen Cole of Clean Fairfax, a litter prevention group, commends the county. “We don’t know why recycling rates dipped in certain categories, but it is heartening to see the glass and food waste rate skyrocket because of the creative endeavors of the County and the commitment to the environment by the residents.  More of that please!” she stressed.

Information

EQAC Report, https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/environment-energy-coordination/environmental-quality-advisory-council 

What Goes Where, https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/recycling-trash/residential-materials