Oceana Applauds Progress to Phase Out Single-Use Plastics in National Parks and Public Lands - Oceana USA

Oceana Applauds Progress to Phase Out Single-Use Plastics in National Parks and Public Lands

Press Release Date: September 28, 2023

Location: Washington

Contact:

Megan Jordan | email: mjordan@oceana.org | tel: 202.868.4061

The Department of the Interior announced today that all bureaus have finalized plans to phase out single-use plastics on public lands in the next decade following an initial announcement last June. Oceana campaign director Christy Leavitt applauded the news and released the following statement: 

“Today our national parks are one step closer to being plastic-free. Oceana applauds Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s commitment to phase out the sale and distribution of single-use plastic products in our national parks and other public lands and calls on the department to implement the plans more quickly. Each year, millions of people visit our treasured parks for their natural beauty, history, and culture, and plastic pollution mars that experience, polluting the landscape and harming wildlife. Single-use plastics have no place on our public lands. 

The Department of the Interior’s actions to phase out single-use plastics and move to refill and reuse systems, including prioritizing water bottle refilling stations, will have a meaningful impact on our oceans, wildlife, and climate as well as raise the bar for federal agency action to reduce plastics. The National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and other bureaus of the Interior Department should immediately phase out the most problematic plastics, including plastic foam food and beverage containers and plastic bags. Protecting our national parks from plastics is an important step toward a plastic pollution-free future and can’t come soon enough.”