Protecting Our National Parks
Have you visited one of the US’s National Parks? If you have, you’ll probably recall picturesque scenes or stunning landscapes. These beacons of natural beauty have been entrusted to our National Parks Service for their protection for generations to come.
But the tons of single-use plastic sold across eighty million acres of land managed by the National Parks Service is not compatible with environmental stewardship. We know that plastics, which break down into ever smaller particles, have reached the most remote wildernesses on the planet and are wreaking havoc on living ecosystems. Our National Parks are not immune from these forces.
It’s time to take a stand against the sale of unnecessary single-use plastics in our National Parks. We’re calling for the removal of single-use plastic beverage bottles, bags, and foodware, and polystyrene products.
The good news is that momentum is growing towards #PlasticFreeParks. A recent poll conducted by our campaign partners Oceana reveals that a massive 82% of Americans support the ban of single-use plastics from National Parks. Where national opinion starts, our Congress should follow, that’s why alongside an executive push for removing plastics from our national parks, a new bill, the Removing Waste in National Parks Act (H.R.5533), with the same goal has been tabled in Congress.
Leave No Trace
The national parks have been sabotaged for years under the Trump Administration. Now they are under the leadership of Secretary Deb Haaland, the long-overdue first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary and an environmental champion in her own right.
Native Peoples have been stewards of the land and national park territories for many generations and Secretary Haaland herself has supported the bold Break Free Free From Plastic Pollution Act. Let’s help her resolve to remove unnecessary plastic from the national parks for good.
We have all learned to “leave no trace” in our parks, but plastic leaves an imprint from the moment that fossil fuels are extracted from the ground, that’s why it’s time to remove plastics from our pristine national parks for good.
