As part of its continued commitment to ensure the environment remains vibrant for generations to come, The Travel Corporation has announced its goal to phase out all single-use plastics from its portfolio of tourism companies by 2022.
Under the guidance of their not-for-profit, The TreadRight Foundation, TTC officially instituted an immediate ban of more than 60 single-use plastic items such as straws, stir sticks, water bottles, plastic bags, and cutlery from its 40 offices around the world.
The single-use plastic ban across the TTC offices is the first step in the group’s journey to completely eliminate single-use plastics across all operations, which will also include the phasing out of single-use plastics across its Uniworld Boutique River Cruises and U by Uniworld cruise ships, all Red Carnation Hotels and all of TTC’s travel experiences.
It is estimated that TTC’s efforts have the potential to help eliminate the use of millions of plastic water bottles annually.
TTC took the first step toward eliminating plastic waste over a year ago, implementing a single-use plastic ban in its Toronto, Canada office, replacing the items with viable alternatives to ensure longevity of the project.
That action was soon followed by The Red Carnation Hotel Collection and Uniworld, who eliminated the purchase of all plastic straws and related single-use plastic items from 17 properties and 20 ships respectively.
“We are absolutely committed to doing our part to eliminate avoidable plastic waste and making a positive impact in the communities that we live in and visit,” says Brett Tollman, chief executive, TTC and co-founder of The TreadRight Foundation.
“As a group with offices in more than 15 countries and operating in 70 countries around the world, we recognise the need to do our part to ensure that we do not further contribute to this planetary crisis.
“We are also encouraging our more than 10,000 team members to join us in this fight by reducing the use and consumption of products contained or served in plastic in their daily lives as well.
“We hope this sets a meaningful example to other businesses to join the movement in working to stop the scourge of plastics on a global scale.”
It is estimated that eight million tonnes of plastic pour into our oceans every year, this in addition to more than five trillion pieces of plastic estimated to be littering the oceans at this moment.
Larger pieces of plastic injure, impair and kill wildlife, while the disintegration of plastic debris and the manufacturing of microbeads are wholly poisoning marine ecosystems.
According to a report by the World Economic Forum, if nothing is done to push back against the deluge of plastics currently overwhelming our oceans, there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050.