In June, the federal government announced plans to phase out a wide range of single-use plastic products in Department of Interior lands by 2032. But lawmakers and three environmental groups are calling on President Joe Biden's administration to move much faster with plastic bottles in national parks.
A July 29 letter from 30 House legislators to Secretary of the Interior Deborah Haaland urged the National Park Service to move faster than the 2032 timeline.
"By phasing out the sale and distribution of single-use plastic, NPS will be able to greatly reduce plastic pollution within our nation's most beloved places while also advancing President Biden's executive order on federal sustainability," the lawmakers wrote.
The letter applauded the Biden administration's overall move on single-use plastics, but the lead author, Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., also pointed to legislation he's sponsoring that calls for tougher action in national parks.
"There is growing support in Congress for legislative solutions which would direct NPS to develop a plan for phasing out the sale and distribution of single-use plastic, such as the Reducing Waste in National Parks Act … which currently has over 50 co-sponsors in the House," Quigley wrote.
Environmental groups also weighed in.
GreenLatinos, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Beyond Plastics said in an Aug. 10 statement that the National Park Service should stop signing multiyear concession contracts for single-use plastic bottles.
"With respect to national parks, there is a 10-year phaseout so it would be the goal of the secretarial order to phase out single-use plastics by 2032," said Mariana Del Valle Prieto Cervantes, the director of strategic initiatives at GreenLatinos. "We believe that it's too slow."
She said the groups are concerned future presidents could change the policy, as has happened in the past.
President Barack Obama first proposed allowing national parks to restrict single-use plastic bottles, but that was rolled back by President Donald Trump's administration.
"We're concerned about what has been done in the past, like I mentioned, the Trump administration rollback, something similar could happen again," she said.
In a petition, the groups called on National Park Service Director Charles Sams to outlaw sales of plastic water bottles in parks, have adequate free drinking water and work to reduce plastic waste by 75 percent in park service lands.
Colleen Teubner, litigation and policy attorney at PEER, said the groups want the park service to eliminate plastics in two years, not 10.
"While we commend the administration for pledging to eliminate plastics from our national parks, this goal can, and should, be achieved sooner," she said.
The groups said they're concerned that the Biden administration's 2032 plan lacks specificity. The order covers single-use plastic food and beverage containers, bottles, straws, cups, cutlery and disposable bags. It directs Interior Department agencies, including the park service, to develop plans by 2023, including analyzing compostable or biodegradable alternatives.
"We believe that there are things like eliminating the sale of single-use plastic and plastic water bottles in every national park by 2024, that could start already, and contracts can start to get canceled," Cervantes said. "That will essentially really cut plastics and solid waste streams by a huge percentage."