Memphis, Tenn. - Through a partnership with the National Park Foundation, International Paper is launching a series of commemorative national park cups, available for use by parks, concessionaires and others. The cups - International Paper's commercially compostable ecotainer(R) - feature eight different artistic renderings of iconic national parks along with an educational message about conservation and environmental stewardship.

"International Paper has a strong legacy of environmental responsibility, and our ecotainer compostable foodservice products are just one example of our stewardship," said John Faraci, International Paper's chairman and chief executive officer and National Park Foundation board member. "We are proud to honor our national parks through this commemorative cup and are looking forward to working with the parks and others to develop composting and recycling solutions."

International Paper will donate one penny for each commemorative cup sold, up to $1 million, to the National Park Foundation to be used to support the Foundation's efforts to promote and protect our national parks.

"International Paper is launching a truly holistic project to support national parks," said National Park Foundation President and CEO Neil Mulholland. "This effort is simultaneously raising needed funds to help protect America's parks, and is also helping promote the range of amazing places for the public to visit - all in an environmentally responsible way."

The national park ecotainer cups can be purchased for use by any national park, concessionaire or other organization that would like to support the parks. The national park ecotainer cups feature iconic national parks - five hot cup designs and three cold cup designs. The cups come in assorted sizes.

In conjunction with the launch of the national park ecotainer cup, International Paper has recently partnered with the Grand Teton Conservation District to conduct a waste characterization study at the Grand Teton National Park. The study, funded in part by International Paper, is aimed at identifying best practices in foodservice waste reduction and composting solutions in order to transfer that knowledge to national parks throughout the country. The national park ecotainer cup is being used as part of the study.

Produced by International Paper, the national park ecotainer cups use paperboard from the company's Riegelwood, N.C., paper mill that is coated at its Prosperity, S.C., extrusion plant, and formed into cups at its Kenton, Ohio, foodservice facility.