Park Service Begins Recycling Program

The National Park Service has introduced recycling programs at three national parks--Acadia in Maine, the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and the Grand Canyon. A fourth, Yosemite, will join them early this year, as soon as bear-proof trash cans are perfected.

With 20 million visitors a year, landfills at the four parks are close to capacity, and officials anticipate that recycling of plastic, glass and aluminum will reduce landfill waste by 25%.

The new program, whose slogan reads “Recycling: It’s as Easy as a Walk in the Park,” provides campers with special sacks for recycling and adds separate receptacles for plastics, glass and aluminum to the existing containers for paper and waste.

As a final step in the program, salvaged plastic will be returned to the parks in the form of picnic tables, park benches, signs . . . and more garbage cans.

Travel Quiz: Explorer Roald Amundsen achieved two firsts. One was becoming the first person to reach the South Pole. What was the other? (Answer below.)

From Crocodile to Shark: Golfer Greg Norman will take over from Paul (“Crocodile Dundee”) Hogan this year as Australia’s tourism spokesman abroad. Norman, nicknamed “The Shark,” has offered his services free to the Australian government to help promote Australia’s tourist attractions. Hogan has being doing so since 1984.

“The Hogan campaign helped us build tremendous awareness and desire for Australia,” said John King, regional director for the Australian Tourist Commission. “This new TV campaign will put more emphasis on the reasons people should travel to Australia, utilizing Greg Norman’s personal endorsement to further motivate viewers to visit.”

Based on the potential of the U.S. and Canadian travel markets, the Australian government has announced plans to increase its 1990-91 North American tourism promotion budget to $9.8 million, almost double the $5.2 million originally allocated.

More Australia: If the current increases in bookings continue, more than 335,000 U.S. travelers will visit Australia this year, a record number of arrivals. Through the end of 1990, the Australian Tourist Commission estimates that the country received slightly fewer than 300,000 U.S. visitors, a 10% increase over 1989.

Quick Fact: Nepal contains less than 1% of the planet’s land mass, but roughly 10% its bird species, about 800.

Pillow Talk: The Mayfair Regent Hotel in Manhattan is shopping for “the world’s best pillows” in order to create a “pillow bank” for its customers. The hotel is planning to offer guests a variety of pillow options starting Jan. 15.

Guest will be able to choose from neck rolls; round pillows; crescent-shape, king-sized foam hypo-allergenic, down facial pillows (down on the sides, cotton against the face); wing pillows (support the shoulders); feather-neck pillows (for reading); snore-stoppers; head cradles (soft center and firm outer sides); orthopedic non-allergenic (soft and firm sections); down hypo-allergenic; wedge (for reading); back-bracer (for the whole back); water pillow (with hot or cold water), and a body pillow (five feet long and shaped to conform to the sleeper’s body).

Time Travel: In 1906, according to a Thomas Cook and Son brochure from that year, you could take a 51-day, all-inclusive tour of Europe for $285, including stops in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and France.

A Roll of the Dice: Denmark’s first casinos opened at midnight on New Year’s Eve, making it the first Scandinavian country to legalize such gambling. The two casinos now in operation are at the SAS Hotel Scandinavia in Copenhagen and at the Hotel Munkebjerg in Vejle, Jutland.

Further casinos are planned later this year at the Hotel Marienlyst in Helsingor (April); the Hotel Hans Christian Andersen in Odense (Feb. 1); the Hotel Royal in Aarhus (May 1), and at the Hotel Limfjorden in Aalborg (May 31).

That Sinking Feeling: Kansai International Airport, being built on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, Japan, will open a year behind schedule due to unexpected ground settling, the contractors said.

The airport, scheduled to be Japan’s first to operate around the clock, was to have opened in March, but will now go into operation in mid-1994.

There’s No Business Like Snow Business: For the third year in a row, the Yukon Jack Sled Dog Races at the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway have had to be canceled due to lack of snow. The races, last run in 1987, were scheduled for this weekend and next.

“We simply do not have enough snow cover to run the event,” said Tramway General Manager Bob Fricker. “We received only about six to eight inches of snow in the storm before Christmas. Even that has since melted to about four inches.”

Quiz Answer: Amundsen also was the first person to sail through the Northwest Passage.