Interior Department Opens the Floodgates to Single-Use Plastics in America’s National Parks. Oceana says ending policy to reduce plastic pollution puts national parks at risk.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed a secretarial order reversing the Department of the Interior’s policy to phase out single-use plastics across national parks and other public lands by 2032. This rescinds the Biden administration’s June 2022 secretarial order to reduce the procurement, sale, and distribution of single-use plastic products and packaging in 433 national parks, including more than 80 ocean and coastal parks, and other public lands managed by the Interior Department. The 2022 order banned the sale and distribution of unnecessary single-use plastic products like plastic foam foodware, bottles, bags, cups, and utensils in these protected areas.
“Don’t be surprised when national parks are overflowing with plastic,” said Christy Leavitt, Oceana’s Senior Campaign Director. “Our parks and other treasured public lands deserve better. Each year, millions of people visit America’s national parks to experience their natural beauty, history, and culture, and plastic mars that experience, fouling the landscape, harming wildlife, and threatening native species. National parks are protected areas — but this action opens the floodgates to plastic. If the Interior Department won’t protect our national parks from plastic, Congress must safeguard these special places.”
![Plastic Waste in Lake Tanganyika, [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]From Willy Kizwera journalist at the Blue Community Radio Bonesha FM Burundi: Bujumbura: P](https://blue-community.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/3422c616-aea7-4dd5-83b7-8723d7008a5e-1-414x224.jpg "Plastic Waste in Lake Tanganyika 2")
