Sustainable Tourism Programme

GLOBAL TOURISM PLASTICS INITIATIVE

The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative unites the tourism sector behind a common vision to address the root causes of plastic pollution. It enables businesses, governments, and other tourism stakeholders to take concerted action, leading by example in the shift towards circularity in the use of plastics.

JOIN SIGNATORIES

It’s time for tourism to take on plastic pollution

Tourism companies and destinations have been making great strides towards reducing their environmental impact and operating in harmony with nature. Yet, the problem of plastic pollution in tourism is too big for any single organisation to fix on its own. To match the scale of the problem, changes need to take place across the whole tourism value chain. Therefore tourism stakeholders around the world are working together and taking a systemic approach through the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative.

Workgroup collaboration on plastic pollution initiatives

A systemic approach to plastic pollution

Eliminate: All problematic and unnecessary plastic items.
Innovate: Ensure that all other plastics are reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
Circulate: To keep plastic in the economy and out of the environment.

Concrete and actionable commitments by

Eliminate problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging and items;
Take action to move from single-use to reuse models or reusable alternatives;
(Engage the value chain to) move towards 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable;
Take action to increase the amount of recycled content across all plastic packaging and items used;
Collaborate and invest to increase the recycling and composting rates for plastics;
Report publicly and annually on progress made towards these targets.

Tourism can be part of the solution

Natural environment preservation through sustainable tourism

By taking serious action in a coordinated manner on plastic pollution, the tourism sector can help preserve and protect the places and wildlife that make destinations worth visiting.

Reducing landfill, pollution, natural resource depletion and greenhouse gas emissions;
Raising awareness of conservation among staff and guests to avoid single-use plastic products;
Influencing their suppliers to produce more sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic products;
Working with governments to improve local waste infrastructure and community facilities;
Creating sustainable livelihoods and long-term community prosperity in harmony with nature.

Resources

November 24,

GTPI Brochures

This leaflet is available in 6 languages (English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian). It presents a quick overview of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative (GTPI).