The National Park Service is out, hat-in-hand, seeking resources to Help Save America’s Front Yard (The National Mall). On an extremely late (perhaps 40 or so years) (even if better than later) act, the National Park Service looks to be en route (finally) to start a recycling program for the three-to-four tons of trash generated each day on the Mall in Washington, DC.
And, how has this (FINALLY!!!!) come about? With a $1.1 million gift from the Coca-Cola Corporation.
Sigh … will the 25 million who visit the Mall each annum be greeted with “Clean, Green National Mall courtesy of the Coca-Cola Corporation”?
Let’s be clear, it is long past time for this action. Sadly, right now the Mall’s 1000+ tons of annual trash heads right to the nearest (or, well, more likely cheapest) available dump. How much of that is the tourists’ aluminum cans? (Every can recycled is, after all, about 300 watt hours saved … how many megawatt hours / year head into that dump?) How much of this comes from newspapers read by Federal workers enjoying the Mall’s splendor on a beautiful spring day? How much of this is not “trash” but a resource to be recycled?
The Coca-Coal money will fund a study (and, it seems, initial efforts) as to how to execute a National Mall recycling program. The money will fund a waste stream to provide understanding as to how many recycling bins will be required and where they should be placed. Note, this will be a summer study — for bins that will go in, with fingers crossed, come October.
Two small notes here:
1. Any chance that the year-round waste profile isn’t the same and require different placement/numbers of recycling bins?
2. Geez … perhaps some bins could go in before October. Please, another six months lost?
“This is the icon of democracy, and it should reflect the best practices that we have to offer as a country,” said Caroline Cunningham, president of the Trust for the National Mall
With a nearly $400 million backlog on maintenance, recycling at the Mall hasn’t exactly been the top of the pile for funding even though many other National Parks across the nation have had recycling programs for years.
“We recognize that we can do a better job with recycling wherever we are throughout the country,” said Dan Wenk, acting director of the National Park Service. “We would hope that we would make recycling easy for people on the National Mall _ that we don’t provide an excuse for them to toss something away that won’t be recycled.”
What has been going on for years, for decades, other than providing “an excuse .. to toss something away”? How many tourists are prepared to lug around empty plastic bottles on a hot summer day, searching for an elusive (and not to be found) recycling bin? (You have to be truly Green to do this.)
Coca-Cola is providing $500,000 as a down payment for the recycling program and $600,000 to support programs at the Mall and other parks, including Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Olympic National Park in Washington state.
“We believe that our national parks should be enjoyed by every American,” said Sandy Douglas, president of Coca-Cola North America. “We share a responsibility together to protect the environment and to conserve our natural resources.”
This is one of those painful times.
Kudos to Coca-Cola for doing this. The money is sparking something far too long in coming. Without their cash, how much longer would the Mall wait?
However, this is far from an anonymous gift given simply for the good the money will achieve. Let’s recognize the great publicity that Coca-Coal will get for this. (Far, FAR more valuable than that $1.1 million (which, of course, couldn’t buy a Super Bowl ad.)
And, let us think about this a bit further …
Do we really want to have those “A Clean National Mall: Brought to You by the Coca-Cola Corporation” recycling bins across America’s Front Yard?
NOTE: In a related discussion, see JamesS’ discussion earlier today, Greenwashing — and that Grey Area of “Buyer Beware”.