Plastic pollution is one of the major environmental challenges of our time and tourism has an important role to play in contributing to the solution. Much of the plastic used in tourism is made to be thrown away as waste and often can’t be recycled, leading to large amounts of pollution. The problem of plastic pollution in tourism is too big for any single organisation to fix on its own. To match the scale of the problem, changes need to take place across the whole tourism value chain, which is why tourism stakeholders around the world are working together and taking a systemic approach through the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative.
The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative requires tourism organisations to make a set of concrete and actionable commitments by 2025:
- 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 percent 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; and
- Report publicly and annually on progress made towards these targets.
The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative will support companies, destinations, associations, and NGOs through:
- Sharing information about the plastic pollution challenge and the solutions being implemented across the sector;
- Fostering procurement practices that consider the plastic footprint of products and services and encourage circularity in the use of plastics;
- Promoting innovation and facilitating the cooperation between governments, local organisations, and businesses;
- Consolidating the progress reported by all signatories and establishing a performance benchmark; and
- Publicly communicating the actions taken by signatories and showcasing the leadership of the sector.
By taking serious action in a coordinated manner on plastic pollution, the tourism sector can help preserve and protect the places and wildlife that make destinations worth visiting.