“The purpose of the Council is to advise the Governor on policy and funding priorities to eliminate plastic waste impacting native species and polluting the Commonwealth's environment and to contribute to achieving plastics packaging circular economy industry standards. The Council shall have a total membership of 10 members that shall consist of two legislative members, four non-legislative citizen members, and four ex officio members."

The members of the Council are listed below.

Legislative:

Delegate Kenneth Plum – Delegate for the 36th House of Delegates District

Kathy Neilson – Designee of Senator Chap Petersen (34th Senate District)

Non-legislative:

Dr. Rob Alexander – James Madison University

Jennifer Cole – Clean Fairfax

Anne Johnson – Resource Recycling Systems, Inc.

Dr. Jennifer Russell – Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Ex-Officio:

Sharon Baxter – Designee of Director of Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)

Joseph Hilbert – Designee of State Health Commissioner/Virginia Department of Health (VDH)

Brett Vassey – Virginia Manufacturers Association (Alternates - Keith Christman and Adam Peer)

Morgan Guthridge – Designee of Virginia Chamber of Commerce President

Council’s Charge for the November 2020 Report

The Plastic Waste Prevention Advisory Council (PWPAC) shall submit a report to the Governor and the Chairs of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources by November 1, 2020. An enactment clause requires that the initial report provide recommendations on legislation and other activities to accelerate the elimination of plastic bags and polystyrene packaging used or sold in the Commonwealth.

To produce this first report of the Plastic Waste Prevention Advisory Council by the required deadline, the work was very compressed. The Council was created by the 2020 General Assembly. The non-legislative citizen members were appointed on April 23, 2021, after the 2020 due date for the initial report. This report represents the annual report and covers the specific materials requested to be covered in the first report. The Council worked within a tight timeline to review background and make recommendations. The Council had little time to deliberate and as a consequence, several issues were pushed off for further discussion.