This bill requires the National Park Service (NPS) Director to set up a program within 180 days to reduce disposable plastic products across units of the National Park System. Regional directors must put the program into practice for parks in their regions. The bill directs regional directors to eliminate the sale and distribution of water in disposable plastic bottles and other disposable plastic products "to the greatest extent feasible" after considering specific factors (costs and benefits, waste reduction, infrastructure and funding for refill stations, concession contracts, operational costs and public health testing, availability of BPA-free reusable containers, effects on concessioner and cooperating association revenue, water availability in food service operations, ability to provide visitor education, input from the NPS Office of Public Health, signage feasibility, safety concerns like dehydration or drinking unsafe surface water, and input from concessioners and cooperating associations). A park unit that already did not sell water in disposable plastic bottles before enactment may continue that practice.
Regional directors must also create a proactive visitor education strategy about water availability and the program. The program should be implemented consistently within each park unit when possible and be incorporated into agreements with concessioners and cooperating associations. Every two years regional directors must evaluate the program for each unit and report the results to the NPS Director and the Secretary of the Interior. Required evaluation topics include public response, visitor satisfaction with water availability, buying behavior for items sold in disposable plastics, public safety (including cases of dehydration or disease from surface water), and disposable plastic bottle collection rates. The bill defines "disposable plastic products" to include disposable plastic beverage bottles, film-plastic carryout bags, plastic foodware (including items marketed as compostable or biodegradable), and expanded polystyrene.
The bill requires regional directors to consider infrastructure and operational costs (for example, costs and funding for refill stations and public health testing). The bill text does not include totals, budgets, or specific funding sources. No publicly available information on overall costs or federal spending estimates is included in the bill text or metadata.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.