The sooner we get single-use plastics out of our national parks, the better
The Interior Department can move faster on removing single-use plastic products from our national parks.
Beyond plastic
To spare birds, fish and other wildlife from the harm caused by plastic pollution, we’re raising our voices for a world with less single-use plastic products.
Maybe you’ve seen the video of a sea turtle with a plastic straw stuck in its nose, or the headlines about whales washing ashore with stomachs full of plastic. With so much plastic pollution floating in the ocean, it’s too easy for wildlife to mistake it for food — and too often, they pay the price with their lives. The good news is that more people, communities, states and companies are moving away from the single-use plastics we don’t even need. Because after all, nothing we use for a few minutes should pollute our environment and threaten wildlife for hundreds of years.
The Latest on Beyond plastic
The label says ‘widely recyclable.’ Is it true?
Our plans for moving beyond plastic in 2023
Updates
421 pounds of trash pulled from confluence of S. Platte and Cherry Creek
Colorado House advances bill to ban plastic bags, take-out foam
Featured Resources
Trash in America
10 steps Whole Foods can immediately take to reduce single-use plastic
Reducing plastic waste in the states
The Whole Foods Plastic Problem
Did You Know?
Scientists have found plastic fragments in 44% of all seabird species, 43% of all marine mammal species and 100% of sea turtle species.
The Latest
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Sysco, the world’s largest food distributor, should stop using harmful single-use plastic
Sysco delivers wholesale food to a wide variety of businesses including restaurants, hotels and hospitals — but in the process, its use of plastic packaging is contributing to the plastic pollution crisis that kills 1 million marine animals every year.
Abundant, redundant and unnecessary: Plastic
Plastic is an environmentally harmful material in every stage of its life cycle. It is produced from oil through a chemical process and after generally a single use, it pollutes the environment for centuries. If it’s not recovered and recycled, it releases toxic chemicals into the ground and water. And because it’s not biodegradable, it will continue to do so indefinitely. Even worse, it harms wildlife when it ends up in their stomachs or when it contaminates their surrounding food source. It’s clear that plastic pollution is dangerous, so why do we use so much of it?
Statement: Canada Bans Single-Use Plastics
The Canadian government has announced that it will ban the manufacture and import of most single-use plastic products in December 2022 and the sale of these products as of December 2023.
U.S. Interior Department to phase out sale of single-use plastic products in parks, public lands
WASHINGTON --- Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland issued an order on Wednesday, World Oceans Day, to phase out single-use plastic products on lands managed by the Department of the Interior by 2032. The order is intended to reduce -- and eventually eliminate -- plastic and polystyrene food and beverage containers, bottles, straws, cups, cutlery and disposable plastic bags at national parks and on other public lands.
Colorado governor signs country’s third producer responsibility law for consumer packaging
Building on successful programs in dozens of countries and recent action taken by Maine and Oregon, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed on Friday a bipartisan producer responsibility bill on consumer packaging into law. Colorado has become the third state in the country to pass a producer responsibility law on consumer packaging.