NATIONAL PUERTO RICAN DAY PARADE
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Last year, for the first time in the history of the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, we made the environment our theme. We celebrated the Natural Beauty of Puerto Rico recognizing that the Encanto of our Island and its people depend on a future with clean air and water and with green places to pray and play.
We are particularly concerned about the high asthma rate within the Puerto Rican community and its environmental causes. We are concerned about the serious effect of Global Warming and resulting sea level rise and precipitation changes especially on Islands. We are concerned about the threats to Puerto Rico’s natural resources and beauty as well as those of the places in which our communities live in the United States. For these reasons we hereby make formal an Environmental Policy for the National Puerto Rican Day Parade.
- Having reduced the solid waste produced in last year’s parade significantly we will continue our message of a litter free parade.
- We will work with the city sanitation department to see if we can collect and deliver recycled materials during the parade.
- At our events throughout the year and the week preceding the parade we will establish recycling centers which ideally will accompany every general garbage can that will be manned by educational volunteers.
- We will provide vendors with information about recycling and how to find compostable plates, cups, cutlery and straws.
- We will work to eliminate throw away plastic water bottles from our events and provide reusable cups. We will also seek to eliminate throw away plates, cups and utensils.
- We will work to implement green practices in our offices including recycling and purchasing recycled paper and other materials.
- We will discuss environmental policies with providers of floats, asking them to consider the purchase of environmental materials and even the use of recycled fuels in their vehicles.
- We will encourage parade presenters to hand out environmentally friendly and reusable “goodies” rather than material that may just end up in the trash.
- We will work with local power authorities to sponsor a carbon offset of our event through the purchase of carbon offsets. (this will require more research)
- We will train parade volunteers to help facilitate environmental actions at the Parade and surrounding events.
- We will provide parade participants and sponsors with information to help them reduce their environmental impact.
- We will work with Parade anchors and spokes people to provide them with information about the Parade as a green event.
We recognize that achieving environmental sustainability is a process. We do not expect to achieve these goals all at once but will work towards them. We will keep abreast of new technology and information each year to help keep the parade as green as possible.
We will continue to suggest the following practices to parade participants to reduce the environmental impact of their participation:
- Make sure to turn off all the lights, computers and ACs before you leave for the Parade.
- Leave your car at home. Take public transportation to the Festivals and Parade.
- Take a reusable, refillable water bottle to the Parade, helping create less trash.
- Take a reusable shopping bag with you to bring your parade goodies home.
- Make sure any cans and bottles you use during the day end up in the recycling bin not the trash can.
- If you do not want your parade goodies either donate, recycle, or re-gift them. Don’t throw them away.