The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative was launched in January 2020 by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. It is an initiative aimed at uniting the tourism sector to combat plastic pollution. They achieve this by enabling businesses, governments, and other tourism stakeholders to take concerted action. Allowing them to lead by example in combating plastic pollution.
The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative currently has 46 signatories with 26 signatories only recently joining.
Of the new signatories, big names such as Booking.com, G Adventures, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Inkaterra, TUI Care Foundation, deSter part of gategroup, and International Aviation Waste Management Platform have joined.
Tourism is a major contributor to plastic pollution worldwide. With the reduction of plastic pollution both by tourists as well as by the utility providers. Overtime with more signatories joining, hotels and travel locations around the world will see a major reduction in plastic usage. Shampoo bottles, soaps, disposable containers and other disposable plastics commonly seen will likely become a sustainable alternative.
The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative has 6 main objectives to achieve by 2025:
- Eliminate problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging and items;
- Take action to move from single-use to reuse models or reusable alternatives;
- Engage the value chain to) move towards 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable;
- Take action to increase the amount of recycled content across all plastic packaging and items used;
- Collaborate and invest to increase the recycling and composting rates for plastics;
- Report publicly and annually on progress made towards these targets.
All 6 of these commitments will make a massive difference to the global plastic usage and disposal. Making a noticeable difference to the planet.
