National Park Service Recycling plan launched at Acadia National Park

SEAWALL — One of the first recycling programs in a national park was launched Wednesday afternoon at Acadia National Park. With the rolling surf off Seawall Point forming the backdrop, James M. Ridenour, director of the National Park Service, termed the program a model of environmental ethics.

“It is important for us to begin to demonstrate the environmental ethics we should have as a nation,” Ridenour said.

The recycling program is the result of a partnership between the park service, The Dow Chemical Co., and Huntsman Chemical Corp.

Frank Bracken, undersecretary of the Department of the Interior, praised the program as an example of the “very finest type of partnership in this country.”

“Recycling and solid waste are major concerns,” Bracken said. “Hopefully visitors will see a successful recycling program here … and want one in their own community.”

Approximately 130 recycling containers soon will be in place throughout the park. Park visitors will be asked to place plastic, glass and aluminum in the specially designated containers. Paper, food and other waste will be placed in standard garbage cans.

A local company, Coastal Disposal of Southwest Harbor, will pick up the recycling containers and transport them to Augusta, where the waste will be separated and sold for recycling.

When possible, recycled plastics will be returned to the park in the form of picnic tables, park benches, sign posts, guard rails and car stops.

“As a manufacturer of plastics, we would like the public to know that plastics can be recycled,” said Bill Snodgrass, project manager of Dow.

Gerald Patten, regional director of the North Atlantic Region of the National Park Service, said that 30 million people visit the 40 parks in the region each year. “The parks should serve as models for living lightly on the land,” Patten said, adding, “Solid waste recycling is one way to accomplish that.”

With visitors to Acadia generating an estimated 175 tons of solid waste each year, the program should make a significant impact by reducing that amount by 25 percent. According to Snodgrass, the 25 percent recycling goal is consistent with the national recycling goal set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“The recycling program should benefit the park,” Snodgrass said, “and it should demonstrate glass and plastic recycling to the 4 to 5 million people who come here each year.”

Jack Hauptman, superintendent of Acadia, said that the park is participating in the growth management issues in the region. “Recycling is a North Atlantic issue,” he said. “I hope that people who come here go home and ask their own communities why they don’t have a recycling program.”

Dow and Huntsman, which provide the recycling containers and the trucks and assist park management with the design and implementation of the program, also have developed educational literature, exhibits and ranger talks at the park.

In addition, the program will include recycling containers at heavily visited areas outside the park boundaries on Mount Desert Island, such as the Bar Harbor town pier.

The two companies and the park service also are sponsoring similar recycling programs at three other national parks this year. Those parks include the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Yosemite in California, and the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina. The four parks were chosen for their volume of visitors, a combined total of 18 million to 20 million people each year.

The recycling program will cost the two companies approximately $250,000 each year in each of the parks.