Tackling Plastic Pollution with a Global Tourism Initiative

Why tackle plastic pollution?

Each year, 300 million tonnes of plastics are produced. Tourism industry’s fight against plastic pollution is important because eight million tonnes of plastics end up in the oceans. 80 per cent of tourism is concentrated in coastal areas, which is especially evident in the summer when the number of waste increases by 40 per cent. The global Initiative to tackle the plastic pollution in tourism brings together the tourism sector under the common vision of addressing the root causes of plastic pollution. Plastics is decomposed in microplastics, which can be found in soil and water and is then ingested by animals and humans.

Tourism taking on plastic pollution

Some tourism organisations and destinations have been taking on plastic pollution for quite some time. But, since the issue is too big to be tackled by any organisation alone, it’s urgent for the entire tourism industry to come together and act as one. And that is precisely what tourism organisations interested in tackling plastic pollution did – they came together under the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative. The main aim of the Initiative is to eliminate plastic pollution and promote the shift to circular economy. The authors of the Initiative are aware of the fact that’s it’s difficult to completely eliminate plastic pollution, which is why they promote the use of recycled plastics. They advocate the use of reusable items, and the aim of the signatories is also to affect their partners, so that they would more often use reusable plastics. It’s a systemic approach that aims to eliminate all the unnecessary plastics by 2025, provide the recycling of all the remaining plastics, and make sure not a single part of plastics becomes waste. What is special about the Initiative is that different tourism service providers are involved and they have access to numerous educational content as part of the programme.

Hostelling International’s path to towards the Initiative

Hostelling International set out on its path to reducing plastic pollution in 2018 when two basic proposals were adopted, reaffirming HI’s commitment to contributing to a sustainable world. The first proposal was to ban single-use plastics in all HI hostels, if possible, and the second proposal was to reduce the “food footprint” in all HI hostels that offer food products.

What solutions are recommended for hostels?

Plastics commonly occurs in hostels. According to research, it’s most often used in the cleaning of hostels, which also includes garbage bags and gloves. Everyday buying of cleaners is a major problem, so refillable bottles are recommended. Hostels that would decide to join the Initiative can use various measures for reducing the use of plastics. One of these is to dispose all of plastics in the rooms and start using refillable bottles for their cleaners. It’s important to educate the staff, so they can learn to properly recycle waste, especially plastics. Hostels also have an ability to affect their partners, such as trading partners, so that they use fewer plastic materials in deliveries.

We can greatly contribute to help reduce plastics in hostels ourselves. We can, for example, go around carrying our own bottle, as everyone will be glad to refill it.