Leaders of this famously green city last year passed the nation’s first grocery-bag fee, and other cities around the nation quickly followed. But the plastics industry has been fighting back, bringing lawsuits, aggressively lobbying lawmakers and bankrolling a referendum in Seattle to overturn the 20-cent charge. The measure goes before voters today, and polls show marginal support after the industry spent $1.4 million, outspending supporters about 15-to-1.

Recycling has increased in the area, according to the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority.

Powhatan County will decide later this year whether to implement a curbside recycling program in its Founders Bridge community. Members of the county’s Board of Supervisors said they hope to have a program in place by the end of the year but must first determine whether the district can reach the required number of signatures to proceed.

Henry Lear is an idea man. He has this idea for a water-powered car and a book about the downside of balloons tied to friendly dogs and all sorts of other brainstorms. Of course, Henry is only 7. But he’s already making money on at least one of his ideas: a reusable shopping bag made of recycled water bottles and grain sacks emblazoned with the words: “Paper or plastic? Neither. I’m using my recycled shopping bag, thank you.“ His picture is on the bottom of the bag.

Shelley Kincaid, author of “The Garage Sale Decorator’s Bible,“ knows how to create high-budget chic out of low-budget stuff. Here are some Kincaid projects that turn junky into funky:

• Find a big lamp, remove the socket and dismantle the electrical parts. Plop a candle on top and you have a fancy altar candle.

Pulled between having the newest, shiniest gadget and taking part in the “go green” phenomenon? Central Virginia Waste Management Authority is providing a way to have both. On Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., CVWMA’s crew will be at The Diamond, 3001 N. Boulevard, to recycle used electronics. Attendants will evaluate and unload the electronics and almost anything with a plug—including computer parts, stereos, microwaves and VCRs—will be accepted with no fee. Recycling of televisions, computer monitors and fluorescent light bulbs require a nominal fee.

Three A.S. Rhodes Elementary School students have broadened a school recycling program to include donations toward the construction of a new area museum. A.S. Rhodes fifth-graders Alexis Schneider and Emma Ruby began the recycling program three years ago after watching a kindergarten recital on the importance of reusing and recycling materials for the environment.

Nine Hanover County communities will receive recycling services starting July 1. The Board of Supervisors last night approved special recycling tax districts for residents in Atlee Ridge, Castlewood, Craney Island Farms, Deer Valley, Kings Charter, Madison Springs, Reardon’s Ridge, Royal Glen and Somerset. Each household in those neighborhoods will be charged an estimated annual fee of $22.80 for the service, which will be added to their real estate taxes. The neighborhoods seeking the service had to submit petitions with the signatures of at least 80 percent of the homeowners in that area.

Area residents soon will lose a reliable place to drop bags full of plastic milk jugs and old newspapers. The popular recycling drop-off facility at Fire Station No. 8, at Patterson and Forest avenues, will be closed by June. Henrico County plans to demolish the firehouse, built in 1950, and build a larger station. But the parking lot, which already is crowded, will not support the traffic from cars dropping off recycling during and after construction.

Area residents soon will lose a reliable place to drop bags full of plastic milk jugs and old newspapers. The popular recycling drop-off facility at Fire Station No. 8, at Patterson and Forest avenues, will be closed by June. Henrico County plans to demolish the firehouse, built in 1950, and build a larger station. But the parking lot, which already is crowded, will not support the traffic from cars dropping off recycling during and after construction.

After Christmas, most folks don’t have much use for the fresh-cut evergreen fading fast in their living rooms. And if a new flat-screen HDTV arrived under that same tree, the old television with a fuzzy picture may have to go as well. To provide an environmentally friendly alternative to tossing post-holiday castoffs in a landfill, many local governments are offering Christmas tree and electronics recycling.

Momentum is growing for a commercial recycling program that could begin downtown and eventually expand to every business in the town limits. Blacksburg Town Council is set to vote Tuesday on a resolution supporting recommendations from the ad-hoc Downtown Recycling Study Group that would create a mandatory “pay-as-you-throw” recycling system for businesses.