Plastics don't belong in parks.

In New York City, our parks system is the lifeblood of New Yorkers and wildlife who depend on the peace, community, and nourishment that green spaces offer. 

One of these parks is McCarren Park along the Greenpoint/Williamsburg border in Brooklyn, NY. And each day, it gets absolutely trashed by Park patrons and the vendors that utilize Park House for their business. 

Trash piles up by the clusters of receptacles that line the Park's paths, brimming with single-use plastic cups from beer and coffee served from Park House vendors (let alone the trash that visitors bring into the Park themselves...).

By now, we all know that plastics are poison. They leech chemicals that are now found in all humans; they break down into microplastics that kill wildlife; and they proliferate the production of fossil fuels (plastics, after all, are made from fossil fuels).

For this very reason, today we kindly encourage that Park House—a vendor space that directly benefits from its location within a beloved NYC park—to stop trashing the very place from which it extracts business. 

This can be done in several ways:

• Partnership with a circular cup program that allows customers to use and return cups for constant reuse (see: companies like Cup Zero)
• An extra 25 cent charge for single-use plastic cups, and a 25 cent discount for customers who bring their own reusable cup for beer, coffee, etc. 
• Compostable cups and a specific receptacle for those cups, so that they actually get composted. 

It is completely possible for Park patrons to enjoy their picnic without trashing the place, and it is completely possible for Park House vendors to make that enjoyment a reality. 

Let's start chipping away at plastic waste at the source, and fight the climate crisis together.