A new report says a quarter of all of the waste that winds up in Virginia comes from outside the commonwealth.
So where, exactly, does it come from?
Neighboring Maryland, D.C. and North Carolina 鈥� along with New York and New Jersey 鈥� are the biggest sources of waste from outside the state.
That’s according to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality鈥檚 .
According to the DEQ, those outside jurisdictions account for 97% of all out-of-state waste. Maryland is the largest contributor of out-of-state waste 鈥� at nearly 2.5 million tons. That accounts for more than 42% of Virginia’s out-of-state waste and more than 10% of all the waste collected in Virginia last year.
Virginia received about 51,350 tons from D.C. That’s more than 15% of Virginia’s out-of-state waste.
Nearly 22.5 million tons of waste overall were collected by Virginia in 2020, a small decrease of approximately 24,800 tons from the amount reported in 2019, according to the report.
The amount of waste from outside Virginia decreased as well, by 1.9% or 108,000 tons.
The report showed about 72% of all trash went to landfills. Another 12% was incinerated and most of the rest was either recycled, mulched or composted.
The DEQ said its annual recycling report for 2020 will be issued later this year.
