Reusable Water Bottles Prevent Trash, Boost Revenue at National Parks

The National Park Service has been working to prevent litter and garbage build-up from single-use water bottles. As we previously reported in July, water bottle companies made moves to prevent the ban on disposable water bottles, but the sale of reusable water bottles in parks, such as Yellowstone National Park, has been successful financially and in terms of preventing waste.

The Bonney Lake Courier-Herald reported that Liberty BottleWorks, a water bottle manufacturing company based in Union Gap, Wash., have supplied water bottles to visitor centers in Yellowstone. A portion of the bottle's sales go toward the Yellowstone Association.

After Zion National Park in Utah banned the sale of single-use plastic water bottles, sales of reusable bottles increased by 78 percent, and the National Park Service estimated that it kept 60,000 disposable water bottles out of the garbage.

Some parks are still working toward building water refilling stations, which would make refilling reusable water bottles easier, but that could cost between $2,000 to $15,000.

The Bonney Lake Courier-Herald estimated that this year's visitor total at Yellowstone could top the all-time total of 3.64 million, set in 2010. If that is the case, having reusable water bottles available to the masses could prevent waste, in addition to providing significant funding to the park.