The order would help reduce the more than 14 million tons of plastic that end up in the ocean every year.
WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department said Wednesday it will phase out sales of plastic water bottles and other single-use products at national parks and on other public lands over the next decade, targeting a major source of U.S. pollution.
The order essentially reverses a 2017 Trump administration policy that prevented national parks from banning plastic water bottle sales. Only a fraction of the more than 400 national parks, but some of the most popular ones like the Grand Canyon, had implemented such a ban. "Our national parks, by definition, are protected areas - ones that Americans have loved for their natural beauty and history for over a century - and yet we have failed to protect them from plastic for far too long,'' said Christy Leavitt, plastics campaign director for the conservation group Oceana.
Merkley, who chairs a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Interior Department, is co-sponsor of a bill that would ban the sale of single-use plastic water bottles in national parks. 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.
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