Grand Canyon Set To Become First US National Park To Trial Eliminating Single-Use Waste

In an effort to tackle its titanic trash problem, Grand Canyon National Park has set out a plan for its South Rim site to become the first in a US national park to use almost entirely reusable foodware.

It’s no surprise that so many people want to visit national parks – they’re home to geological wonders , traces of our ancient ancestors , and some of our favorite animals . The trouble is, with a lot of people usually comes a lot of trash – nearly 70 million tons of it, in fact. According to a report produced by non-profit the 5 Gyres Institute , 81 percent of that waste is plastic.

While some waste is brought along and left by tourists themselves, plenty of rubbish is also generated by park food vendors. At Grand Canyon, concessioners give out around eight single-use foodware items with every transaction – that racks up to over 7.2 million in a year.

It’s easier said than done to manage all of that waste, so the National Park Service (NPS) and National Park Foundation (NPF) put out a call for help: come up with an innovative way to reduce, reuse, and recycle the plastic used, and they’ll give you $400,000 to bring it to life.

The winner of that grant was a collaboration between reuse movement agency Upstream Solutions and two park vendors, Delaware North and Xanterra Travel Collection. Together, they’re aiming to consult with fellow vendors, the park and its conservancy, and the local community to figure out the best way to put their plan into action.

It’s hoped the result of that will be a system where reusable – and, importantly for a site with a big demand for food and drink, durable – foodware is collected, cleaned, and continues to be used.

“NPF is thrilled to support the first reuse program of this scale in a national park gateway community through Upstream,” said Ashley McEvoy, Director of Resilience and Sustainability at the NPF, in a statement . “This program will help support the Secretary’s goals to phase out single-use plastics on all DOI (U.S. Department of the Interior) managed lands.”

There’s also plenty that visitors can do to reduce the waste generated at national parks. The “ Don’t Feed the Landfills ” initiative, first launched in 2015 at the Denali, Grand Teton, and Yosemite National Park, gives five main pointers on how to do so:

1. Plan and Prepare – think about what you’re bringing with you – is it reusable? If not, does the park have places you can recycle or compost it?
   
   
2. Opt for Online when you can – where possible, switch to smartphones instead of paper maps, tickets, etc.
   
   
3. Bring Your Own Coffee Mug – this one is pretty self-explanatory, but if you forget, plenty of parks sell their own reusable mugs.
   
   
4. Bring Your Own Water Bottle – ideally a reusable one, and use refill stations.
   
   
5. Choose Reusable Bags – bought some merch? Bring a reusable bag to pop your purchases in.