Single-use plastic products to be tossed at national parks

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department has announced that it will phase out sales of plastic water bottles and other singleuse products at national parks and on other public lands over the next decade, targeting a major source of U.S. pollution.

An order issued by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland calls for the department to reduce the purchase, sale and distribution of singleuse plastic products and packaging on 480 million acres of federally managed lands, with a goal of phasing out the products by 2032.

The order directs the department to identify alternatives, such as compostable or biodegradable materials or 100% recycled materials.

“As the steward of the nation’s public lands, including national parks and national wildlife refuges, and as the agency responsible for the conservation and management of fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats,” the Interior Department is “uniquely positioned to do better for our Earth,” Haaland said in a statement Wednesday.

The order essentially reverses a 2017 Trump administration policy that prevented national parks from banning plastic water bottle sales. The Grand Canyon was among a fraction of the more than 400 national parks to implement the ban.

Environmental groups hailed the Biden administration’s announcement, which advocates and some Democratic lawmakers have been urging for years.

Oceana, a conservation group, has called for the National Park Service and other agencies to move swiftly to carry out changes in reducing single-use plastics well before 2032.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., also urged quicker action to address what he called the plastic pollution crisis. “With everyone — from park rangers to park visitors — doing their part we can get this done before the decade has passed!” Merkley said in a statement.

Merkley, who chairs a subcommittee that oversees the Interior Department, is co-sponsor of a bill that would ban the sale of singleuse plastic water bottles in national parks.

Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., who co-sponsored the bill in the House, hailed the announcement as “a huge step forward in the effort to protect our environment and its creatures from the damage of single-use plastics.”

Matt Seaholm, president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association, called Interior’s announcement “disappointing” and counterproductive.

“In most applications, plastic products are the least environmentally harmful option, as long as they are disposed of properly,” said Seaholm, whose group represents the entire plastics industry supply chain.

He urged improved recycling infrastructure in parks as “a better approach to sustainability.”

Haaland said the plastics order was especially important because less than 10% of plastics ever produced have been recycled, and U.S. recycling rates are falling as China and other countries have stopped accepting U.S. waste.

JACQUELYN MARTIN/AP 2018 A trash can outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington. Expect to see fewer single-use plastic products in national parks across the country.