Plastics News published a more recent update of this story, as lawmakers have also joined the effort to speed up the elimination of plastics in national parks. Read the new story here.

In June, the federal government announced plans to phase out a wide range of single-use plastic products in Department of Interior lands by 2032. But three environmental groups are calling on President Joe Biden's administration to move much faster with plastic bottles in national parks.

The GreenLatinos, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Beyond Plastics said in an August 10 statement that the National Park Service should stop signing multi-year concession contracts for single-use plastic bottles.

"With respect to national parks, there is a 10-year phase out so it would be the goal of the secretarial order to phase out single-use plastics by 2032," said Mariana Del Valle Prieto Cervantes, the director of strategic initiatives at GreenLatinos. "We believe that it's too slow."

She said the groups are concerned future presidents could change the policy, as has happened in the past.

President Barack Obama first proposed allowing national parks to restrict single-use plastic bottles, but that was rolled back by President Donald Trump's administration.

"We're concerned about what has been done in the past, like I mentioned, the Trump administration roll back, something similar could happen again," she said.

In a petition, the groups called on National Park Service Director Charles Sams to outlaw sales of plastic water bottles in parks, have adequate free drinking water and work to reduce plastic waste by 75 percent in park service lands.

Colleen Teubner, litigation and policy attorney at PEER, said the groups want the park service to eliminate plastics in two years, not 10.

"While we commend the administration for pledging to eliminate plastics from our national parks, this goal can, and should, be achieved sooner," she said.

The groups said they're concerned that the Biden administration's 2032 plan lacks specificity. The order covers a single-use plastic food and beverage containers, bottles, straws, cups, cutlery and disposable bags. It directs Interior Department agencies, including the park service, to develop plans by 2023, including analyzing compostable or biodegradable alternatives.

"We believe that there are things like eliminating the sale of single-use plastic and plastic water bottles in every national park by 2024, that could start already, and contracts can start to get canceled," Cervantes said. "That will essentially really cut plastics and solid waste streams by a huge percentage."

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