Trending
WASHINGTON (AP) -- 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.
An order issued by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland calls for the department to reduce the purchase, sale and distribution of single-use 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 to single-use plastics, 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.
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.
Environmental groups hailed the Biden administration's announcement, which advocates and some Democratic lawmakers have been urging for years.
"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.
Haaland's order "will curb millions of pounds of unnecessary disposable plastic in our national parks and other public lands, where it can end up polluting these special areas,'' Leavitt said. The group urged 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 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.
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., who co-sponsored the bill in the House, hailed the Interior announcement as "a huge step forward in the effort to protect our environment and its creatures from the damage of single-use plastics.''
Quigley, who is planning a visit to Yosemite National Park, said he looks forward to learning how the park will implement the new rule.