Dive Brief:

• Virginia is updating its state solid waste management plan for the first time since 1979, offering a 20-year vision meant to prioritize waste diversion and promote circular economy principles.
• The draft plan recommends a range of updates meant to extend landfill lifespans and promote recycling and organics diversion as an economic benefit. The plan also calls for better data collection and proposes pursuing an extended producer responsibility program for packaging.
• Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality seeks comments on the draft through Dec. 19 and anticipates finalizing the plan sometime in 2026 after approval from the state Waste Management Board, said Irina Calos, a DEQ communications manager.

Dive Insight:

The draft update aims to modernize the state’s strategy for dealing with waste, a move to “address the complexities of managing 21st-century materials and systems, especially with declining capacity and limited lifespan of existing disposal infrastructure in the state,” according to the draft.

Virginia’s 1979 plan “was visionary for its time,” Calos said in an email, but the state at that time had less-developed waste regulations and focused more on a “reactive approach to waste management.” 

In 2024, DEQ received a federal Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grant to support its work on statewide materials management improvements, including the development of the draft plan.

The draft calls for aligning the state with the U.S. EPA’s national waste management hierarchy while also embracing technologies and circular economy principles that weren’t the norm 46 years ago.

The draft also calls for “considerations for equity, resilience, and climate impacts,” meaning the state will continue EJ-related public education and outreach efforts and promote the use of tools like the state’s VAEJScreen+ mapping tool, it said.

The draft plan considers the state’s future, but also offers insights into current waste management operations.

Landfill capacity is among the concerns outlined in the report. Virginia manages about 22 million tons of solid waste a year, with about 17 million tons originating inside the state. Another 5 million tons come from out of state, including neighboring D.C. and Maryland. About 11% of those out-of-state tons originated from New York and New Jersey combined. New Jersey’s MSW exported to Virginia has increased by 595% over the past decade, the report states.

Virginia has about 236 million tons of remaining landfill capacity, which is projected to last for about 20 more years, according to the report. 

The economic impact of waste and recycling efforts is also central to the draft, and the proposal calls for offering grants, technical assistance, and economic incentives “for communities and businesses to grow the circular economy in Virginia.” It also calls for attracting companies to the state that use postconsumer recycled materials as raw materials for its products. 

In 2023, Virginia reused, recycled or composted 3.9 million tons of material per year, involving more than 7,070 jobs and creating a total economic impact of $1.9 billion in revenue.

“By treating recovered materials as economic assets rather than waste, Virginia can strengthen its manufacturing base, reduce dependence on virgin resources, and promote long-term economic growth,” the plan states.

The draft solid waste plan calls for multiple suggestions for improving waste and recycling data collection efforts, which it said will help provide more specific insight on how the state can improve its diversion rates.

“The state currently does not track or report on recycling, diversion, or intermediate material processing systems in a consistent or comprehensive way,” the report said. “This prevents policymakers from understanding how materials flow from disposal to end-of-life and hinders statewide planning to support circular economy goals.”  Virginia also has no statewide waste composition data, the report said.

The estimated statewide recycling rate is 42.5%, but that figure accounts for solid waste reuse credits, non-MSW recycled, recycling residues and source reduction programs, the report said.

Many recycling-related facilities don’t currently contribute to state recycling data, the report said. Permitted solid waste facilities, such as landfills, are required to submit data each year, but most recycling in Virginia occurs at places that aren’t required to have such state permits, such as many recycling facilities, MRFs and organics recovery facilities. The draft report proposes these facilities be required to submit annual recycling data. 

The draft also proposes pursuing EPR for packaging legislation as one effort to improve recycling rates. It calls for conducting a statewide recycling needs assessment and establishing an advisory council, similar to EPR work in states such as neighboring Maryland and other states establishing EPR for packaging programs

The report also expresses interest in pursuing EPR for other types of products, such as electronics, paint, mattresses, pharmaceuticals and hazardous materials.

The 158-page report notes numerous other suggestions for updates, including at the local level. It suggests increasing the minimum recycling requirements for local governments to 20% or 35% based on population density, up from 15% or 25%.

It also calls for working with municipalities to encourage programs such as pay-as-you-throw initiatives and better support systems for multifamily waste and recycling programs. The draft also encourages local governments to adopt repair and reuse programs and services to further divert items from disposal.