Plastic pollution coming to National Parks

Associated Press (ap.org); Seth Auberon, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Long line of hikers come out of the Grand Canyon along Bright Angel Trail, AZ. The U.S. federal government announced Aug. 16, 2017, it will eliminate a policy it put in place to allow national parks to ban the sale of bottled water in an effort to curb litter.

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The only way to keep the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- the continent-size non-island of broken down plastic debris (which is petroleum based) entering the food chain as microscopic xenoestrogenic trash killing birds and giving humans cancer -- growing is to allow people to bring plastic water bottles, which are made by powerful corporations who were noticing a cut into the their profits by the ban, into our national parks. Why would the National Park Service stand in the way of corporate capitalism? Maybe contributions are at stake.

 

NPS ends ban on disposable water bottles

PHOENIX, Arizona - The federal government announced [Aug. 16th] it will eliminate a policy that allowed national parks like the Grand Canyon to ban the sale of bottled water in an effort to curb [dangerous, slow-to-breakdown, chemical] litter.

The National Park Service said in a statement it made the decision to "expand hydration options for recreationalists, hikers, and other visitors to national parks."

 

Angeles Nat'l Forest, San Gabriel Mtns

The rules were first put in place in 2011 after it became clear discarded water bottles were becoming a big litter problem in national parks. The policy did not stop the sale of bottled sweetened drinks.

 

Officials say 23 of the 417 National Park Service sites have implemented the policy since it was enacted. Those include some the nation's most popular destinations such as the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, and Mount Rushmore.

 

The bottled water and beverage industry have previously lobbied aggressively to keep bottled water at U.S. national parks. More

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