by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 3:35 PM ET, Wed June 6, 2018
The Travel Corporation is phasing out all single-use plastics from its extensive collection of travel and tourism companies, beginning with an immediate ban of more than 60 types of the environmentally damaging plastics.
The company made the announcement to coincide with World Environment Day yesterday.
Following guidance provided by its not-for-profit TreadRight Foundation, The Travel Corporation (TTC) has developed a "Multi-Year Plastics Elimination Strategy," that outlines a five-year process for elimination of all single-use plastics.
The effort will begin immediately with straws, stir sticks, water bottles, plastic bags and cutlery being eliminated from TTC's 40 global offices.
"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," said 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 recognize the need to do our part to ensure that we do not further contribute to this planetary crisis."
Tollman and TreadRight have long been leaders in the effort to preserve and protect the planet on many levels including protecting endangered species. TreadRight, in particular, provides financial support to critical sustainable tourism projects around the world, partnering with such groups as Wilderness Foundation Africa; Wild Aid; Wildlife SOS - India; World Animal Protection and the Sea Turtle Conservancy, among many others.
For its part, TTC began working towards the elimination of avoidable plastic waste more than a year ago, at its Toronto, Canada office, which took the first important step of banning single-use plastics and replacing them with viable alternatives.
That action was followed by TTC's Red Carnation and Uniworld brands, which eliminated the purchase of all plastic straws and related single-use plastic items from its 17 properties and 20 ships.
"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," said Tollman. "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."
An estimated 8.8 million tons of plastic wind up in our oceans every year, in addition to the more than five trillion pieces of plastic estimated to already be littering the oceans at this moment, said TTC. The 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 in the oceans than fish by the year 2050.
"Plastics are a clear and present danger to the future of our planet," said Céline Cousteau, an ambassador for TTC's TreadRight. "TTC's commitment to the elimination of single-use plastics across the group inspires hope in the face of a massive adversary and signals to the industry the important role travel and tourism organizations must play in combatting the problem of plastics."
TTC's announcement is the latest in a string of high-profile travel industry initiatives to address the environmental problems caused by single-use plastics.
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