Concerns over landfill waste, litter, and energy have grown right along with the global population. For the National Park Service, one attempt to address those concerns has been to ban the sale of disposable water bottles in the park system. By using refillable water bottles, you can help keep the parks a bit cleaner while keeping yourself hydrated.

Vapur, which manufactures collapsible water bottles that you can use again and again and again on your national park adventures, has been working with a growing number of parks to make it easy for you to slake your thirst and minimize litter. Through its Vapur Hydration Program, the company has been installing water-filling stations in such parks as Bryce Canyon in Utah, Yellowstone in Wyoming, and even Katmai in Alaska.

How great is the litter problem? According to the Park Service, Americans throw away enough garbage every day to fill 63,000 garbage trucks, which if lined up end to end for an entire year would stretch half way to the moon. When it comes to plastic waste, that can take 1,000 years to degrade, the Park Service says. And when it comes to plastic water bottles, we toss out about 35 billion a year, according to the agency.

Which is where the benefits of using refillable water bottles come into play. You can learn more about the issue, and Vapur's efforts to get more park visitors to "fill, drink, refill, repeat," on the company's page in Traveler's Visiting the Parks section. This section is designed as a reader service to help park travelers learn a little bit more about services, gateway towns, and businesses that are often intertwined with a national park visit.