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Global Tourism Plastics Initiative takes on one of the worst polluters

Jan 23, 2020
Global Tourism Plastics Initiative takes on one of the worst polluters

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The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative is officially announced by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

This initiative unites the tourism sector behind a common vision to tackle the root causes of plastic pollution, enabling businesses and governments to take joint action.

The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative is ground-breaking and ambitious in its goals. It aims to reduce the amount of plastic pollution caused by the tourism sector. To achieve this vision, tourism companies and destinations will be required to make a set of concrete and actionable commitments by 2025, including to:

  • Eliminate problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging and items by 2025;
  • Take action to move from single-use to reuse models or reusable alternatives by 2025;
  • 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;
  • Commit to collaborate and invest to increase the recycling and composting rates for plastics;
  • Report publicly and annually on progress made towards these targets.

“The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative is a unique opportunity for tourism companies and destinations to step forward and lead the global effort addressing plastic pollution. Frontrunning tourism companies and destinations will set quantifiable targets as part of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative and accelerate the transformation of the tourism sector towards more integrated solutions and circular business models,” said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili.

The Initiative is a key activity of the Sustainable Tourism Programme of the One Planet Network and it acts as the interface for the tourism sector of the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Original source: UNWTO
Published on 22 January 2019