Coke to Donate $1M for Recycling in Nat’l Parks

With an estimated 25 million visitors annually, the National Mall in Washington D.C. sees a lot of action. Not only is it host to countless events year round, but it is also host to trash – almost 8,000 pounds every day.

While it has never had a recycling program, Coca-Cola is rising to the occasion and sponsoring a $1.1 million program to bring recycling to the National Mall and other national parks, along with the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation and the Trust for the National Mall.

Beginning with a study of how much of the trash can be recycled or reused (along with a down payment from Coke of $500,000), the program is set to launch by October this year. According to the Washington Business Journal, this initiative “supports the Interior Department’s goal of diverting 50 percent of solid waste from landfills through recycling by 2010.”

“This is the icon of democracy, and it should reflect the best practices that we have to offer as a country,” says Caroline Cunningham, president of the Trust for the National Mall, a nonprofit group that raises private money to support the mall’s upkeep.

Trash from this year's Presidential Inauguration overflows on the National Mall. Photo: Flickr/Alexis Matsui

The remaining $600,000 from Coke’s budget will support enhanced trail programs and recycling in seven national parks, including:

• George Washington Memorial Parkway
• Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park
• Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail
• Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area
• Golden Gate National Recreation Area
• Olympic National Park

“What Coke brings as a company is expertise in recycling and also expertise in large events,” Cunningham adds. “There are these immense events we have on an annual basis.”

According to the Associated Press, each year the National mall receives more visitors than Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon combined.