An Obama-era order to eliminate the practice of selling plastic bottles at national parks across the country is being retracted by the NPS although it’s unclear if the order came from Department Of The Interior head and Trump cabinet member, Ryan Zinke.
Related: Did You Know Our National Parks Are A $34.9 Billion Dollar Industry?
The removal was first instituted in 2011 and has since been adopted by some of the country’s biggest and most iconic national parks including Grand Canyon, Zion, and Mount Rushmore. Originally, the document gave permission to individual park superintendents to prohibit plastic water bottle sales on their park’s premises. You can view that original memo here.
“While we will continue to encourage the use of free water bottle filling stations as appropriate, ultimately it should be up to our visitors to decide how best to keep themselves and their families hydrated during a visit to a national park, particularly during hot summer visitation periods.” – Michael T. Reynolds, Acting National Park Service Director
Previous research has indicated that plastic bottles are a main source of some of our national park’s worst pollution problems. Still, the NPS believes that the move appears somewhat hypocritical since they continue to sell bottled sodas and other beverages besides water. The rule change takes place effective immediately.
Find the entire NPS release here: National Park Service Ends Effort to Eliminate Sale of Disposable Water Bottles