When you picture yourself walking down a trail in any one of America's most beautiful spaces – places like Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion – you probably imagine the soft thud of your hiking boots hitting the earth as you take in pristine views. What you may not imagine is your feet crunching down on discarded food wrappers and cigarette butts while your view is littered with plastic bottles, but new data suggests these items make up the vast majority of trash collected over an eight month period last year in US National Parks.
The newly published findings, collected by the 5 Gyres Institute, a non-profit organization that focuses on reducing plastics pollution, show that for the second year running, single-use plastic waste is making up the majority of waste discarded in our National Parks.
