Email Congress to Ban Single-Use Plastics at our National Parks!

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Goal: 1000

With an average 330 million visitors each year, the National Park Service manages approximately 70 million pounds of waste nationally, which would fill nearly 600 dump trucks. It's time to end the sale of the most harmful and pervasive plastic products infiltrating our National Parks.

Please click below to contact your U.S. House representative and Senator and urge them to support the Reducing Waste in National Parks Act (H.R. 5533 and S.2960).

Petrochemical facilities - and disposal of the plastics that they create - disproportionately harm people of color and low-income communities. Nearly 40% of the plastic produced annually is for single-use plastics and packaging - materials that are made to last forever but designed to be used briefly and thrown away. Plastic water bottles are considered more recyclable than some other plastic products, yet three out of four bottles still end up in landfills or incinerators. We cannot recycle our way out of this problem.

The Reducing Waste in National Parks Act mirrors the petition addressed to Secretary Haaland in June 2021 that directs the NPS to eliminate the sale or distribution of single-use plastics in national parks, yet congressional action is still needed.

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Dear [recipient position will go here] [recipient name will go here],

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As a concerned citizen encouraged by your strong record as an environmental leader, I am approaching you on an issue of growing public concern: plastic pollution.

I strongly request that you support the Reducing Waste in National Parks Act (H.R. 5533 and S.2960) to eliminate the sale or distribution of single-use plastics in our national parks. Eliminating single-use plastics will reduce plastic pollution and save money for parks, visitors, concessionaires and park partners, while also advancing the Biden administration’s goals for addressing environmental justice and the climate crisis.

By reducing single-use plastics, NPS will contribute to the Biden administration’s commitment on environmental justice to hold polluters accountable. Petrochemical facilities, and disposal of the plastics that they create, disproportionately harm people of color and low-income communities. Continued efforts by industry to site new plastics facilities in “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana provide a stark case of environmental racism. Extensive research has shown that incinerators and landfills are more often sited in frontline communities. The best way to manage plastic waste is to stop generating it.

Nearly 40% of the plastic produced annually is for single-use plastics and packaging — materials that are made to last forever but designed to be used briefly and thrown away. Plastic production is projected to quadruple between 2014 and 2050, greatly compounding the problem since a meager 9% of all the plastic waste ever generated has been recycled. Plastic water bottles are considered more recyclable than some other plastic products, yet three out of four bottles end up in landfills or incinerators. We cannot recycle our way out of this problem.

Plastic pollution, from tiny microplastics to plastic bottles to larger plastic debris, is polluting our national parks. Plastic trash is often visible in parks, impairing visitors’ experiences of these treasured natural and historical sites. Plastic harms wildlife and ecosystems, from horrific entanglements of large animals like sea turtles and whales to impairment of microscopic organisms in soil. This plastic makes its way into our air, food, and drinking water, most directly when leaching into water we drink from plastic water bottles.

Plastics are also fueling the climate crisis, a critical problem that presents NPS with extraordinary adaptation challenges. Most plastics are made from petrochemicals derived from fossil fuels, which of course are the main drivers of climate change. If plastic were a country, it would be the fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. As our economy shifts toward clean energy resources, oil and gas companies are turning to plastic production as the next growth area for their industries. Petrochemical production is expected to account for over a third of global growth of fossil fuel demand by 2030, and nearly half by 2050—more than trucks, aviation and shipping combined. Furthermore, studies show that plastic contributes to climate change at every stage of its life cycle.

I acknowledge that our national parks were once home to Native People who stewarded these lands for thousands of years. Native People were driven from these lands, in some cases specifically to convert the lands to national parks. As a nation we can honor their stewardship by eliminating plastic pollution from these parks.

The national parks can be a leader in the movement towards a more socially and environmentally just future. I believe that ending the sale of single-use plastics in our national parks will benefit park visitors, park budgets, and park ecosystems.

Sincerely,
[your name will go here]
[your email address will go here] [your location will go here]

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