Why are American national parks filled with plastic? | Jonathan B Jarvis and Christy Leavitt

According to a recent poll, 82% of American voters would support a decision by the National Park Service to stop selling and distributing single-use plastic at national parks

The writer Wallace Stegner once called the national parks America's best idea", but the second half of that quote is more resonant today: They reflect us at our best rather than our worst." In these challenging times, we must look for decisions that reflect us at our best.

National parks like the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Yellowstone and Acadia provide the closest thing we have to experiencing unbridled nature. They also represent our collective decision not to do something in special places that can harm their environment, like cutting down the forest, mining for minerals or hunting wildlife. Over time our understanding of what is the right thing not to do has grown and matured. One of those right things not to do is provide single-use plastics in our national parks.

Jonathan B Jarvis served 40 years with the National Park Service and was its 18th director

Christy Leavitt is the plastics campaign director for the international ocean advocacy organization Oceana