‘Rethinking Single-Use Plastic Products in Travel & Tourism’ launches as countries around the world begin to reopen, and the travel & tourism sector starts to show signs of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic which has been devastating. The report is a first step to mapping single-use plastic products across the travel & tourism value chain, identifying ‘hotspots for environmental leakages’, and providing ‘practical and strategic recommendations for businesses and policymakers’, according to UNEP.
The report’s recommendations include ‘redefining unnecessary single-use plastic products’ in the context of one’s own business; giving contractual preference to suppliers of reusable products; proactively planning procedures that avoid a return to single-use plastic products in the event of disease outbreaks; supporting research and innovation in product design and service models that decrease the use of plastic items, and revising policies and quality standards with waste reduction, and circularity in mind.
Sheila Aggarwal-Khan, Director of the Economy Division, UNEP said: “Travel & tourism has a key role to play in addressing the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, as well as making circularity in the use of plastics a reality. “The advent of COVID-19 and consequent proliferation of single-use plastic products has added urgency to the crises. With this report, we hope to encourage stakeholders in this industry to come together to address this multifaceted challenge. Only by doing so, can we ensure meaningful and durable change.” With around 90 percent of ocean plastic derived from land-based sources and the annual damage of plastics to marine ecosystems amounting to US$13 billion per year, proactively addressing the challenge of plastics within the travel & tourism sector is key.
Source: Circular Online
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