Topline
The Department of the Interior announced Wednesday it will phase out the sale of single-use plastics on public lands, including in national parks, over the next decade, as federal agencies within the Biden administration work to tackle plastic waste on World Ocean Day.
Visitors hike the Mist Trail toward Vernal Fall in Yosemite National Park, California on July 03, … [+]
Key Facts
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland issued a secretarial order that will ban the procurement, sale and distribution of single-use plastics by 2032.
The order also directs the department to find sustainable alternatives to plastic, such as compostable or biodegradable materials.
Haaland said in a statement the Interior Department is obligated to play a large role in reducing plastic waste, and is “uniquely positioned to do better for our Earth” as the leader of the country’s national parks and national wildlife refuges.
Surprising Fact
Nearly two dozen national parks banned the sale of plastic water bottles in 2011, but former President Donald Trump’s administration rescinded the ban in 2017. A study from the National Park Service found that prior to Trump’s reversal, the ban prevented nearly 2 million plastic bottles from being used and discarded in parks.
Tangent
The Interior Department’s announcement comes as part of a package of actions the Biden administration revealed on World Ocean Day. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it will propose a new marine sanctuary in the Atlantic Ocean, which will afford the same protections as national parks. The Hudson Canyon, located approximately 100 miles off the coast of New York and New Jersey, is a biodiversity hotspot and contains multiple shipwrecks, according to the White House. The Biden administration also nominated waters off the coast of the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea in Alaska to become another marine sanctuary.
Big Number
14 million. That’s how many tons of plastic ends up in the ocean every year, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Every year, about 300 million tons of plastic is created for a wide variety of uses.
Further Reading
Biden Orders Federal Government To Become Carbon Neutral By 2050 (Forbes)
National park ban saved 2m plastic bottles – and still Trump reversed it (The Guardian)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2022/06/08/us-phasing-out-single-use-plastics-on-public-lands-by-2032/