Grand Canyon
To cut down on plastic litter, Grand Canyon National Park officials were on the verge late last year of banning the sale of disposable water bottles.
But, as The New York Times reports, they ran into a roadblock at the 11th hour: Coca-Cola, a major donor to the National Park Foundation, which raises funds for federal parks.
Stephen P. Martin, the architect of the ban plan and the top parks official at the Grand Canyon until retiring in December, acknowledged that his superiors in the National Park Service told him they decided to table the project after Coca-Cola, which distributes water under the Dasani brand, registered its concerns about the initiative.
The decision “was upsetting news because of what I felt were ethical issues surrounding the idea of being influenced unduly by business,” Martin said in an interview.
Yet it appears that Coca-Cola, which has given more than $13 million to the parks, may have done nothing more than signal its displeasure to the park foundation before parks officials backed off the ban.
Neil J. Mulholland, the foundation president, said that when a Coca-Cola representative reached out to him late in the process to inquire about the water bottle ban, “there was never anything inferred by Coke that if this ban happens, we’re losing their support.” Jon Jarvis, the top federal parks official, said his decision “to hold off the ban was not influenced by Coke, but rather the service-wide implications to our concessions contracts, and frankly the concern for public safety in a desert park.”
A Coca-Cola spokeswoman, Susan Stribling, told the Times that the company would rather help address the plastic litter problem by increasing recycling. “Banning anything is never the right answer,” she said.
Discarded plastic bottles account for about 30 percent of the park’s wastes, the park service says.
STUART SILVERSTEIN
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Coke Shareholders Reject Bid to Rid Cans of BPA
Add a $1 deposit fee to all plastic bottles. Litter will stop tomorrow.