LONDON, 18 June 2021: The Covid-19 pandemic delivers both negative and positive impacts on single-use plastics pollution, according to a new report released earlier this week by the World Travel & Tourism Council and the United Nations Environment Programme.
The report ‘Rethinking Single-Use Plastic Products in Travel & Tourism’ launches as countries worldwide begin to reopen, and the travel and tourism sector starts to show signs of recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been devastating.
However, the report points out that demand for single-use plastics items has increased, with safety being a serious concern among tourists and take-away services being on the rise.
According to the Thailand Environment Institute, plastic waste has increased from 1,500 tons to a staggering 6,300 tons per day, owing to soaring home deliveries of food.
The pandemic has also catalysed consumer demand for green tourism experiences worldwide, with a 2019 global study finding 82% of respondents are aware of plastic waste and are already taking practical actions to tackle pollution.
The report is the first step to mapping single-use plastic products across the tourism value chain, identifying hotspots for environmental leakages, and providing practical and strategic recommendations for businesses and policymakers.
It will help stakeholders take collective steps towards coordinated actions and policies that drive a shift towards reduction and reuse models, in line with circularity principles and current and future waste infrastructures.
Must-do list
Redefine unnecessary single-use plastic products in the context of one’s own business.
Give contractual preference to suppliers of reusable products.
Adopt proactive planning procedures that avoid a return to single-use plastic products in the event of disease outbreaks.
Support research and innovation in product design and service models that decrease the use of plastic items.
Revise policies and quality standards with waste reduction and circularity in mind.
WTTC senior vice president and acting CEO Virginia Messina said: “WTTC is proud to release this critical high-level report for the sector, focusing on sustainability and reducing waste from single-use plastic products.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the sustainability agenda with businesses and policymakers now putting an even stronger focus on it. As a growing priority, companies are expected to continue to reduce single-use plastic products waste for the future and drive circularity to protect not only our people but importantly, our planet.
The report recognises that global solutions are required to address corporate concerns about the use of single-use plastic products. It aims to support informed decision making based on the potential impacts of trade-offs and of unintended burden shifting when considering the transition to sustainable alternatives.
UNEP director of the economy division Sheila Aggarwal-Khan added: “Travel and 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 the 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% 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 in the travel sector is key.
To read the report in full, please click here
