As part of its efforts to reduce its environmental footprint, Florida-based cruise company Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, operating the Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises brands, announced it is eliminating single-use plastic straws across its fleet of 26 ships and two island destinations, Great Stirrup Cay and Harvest Caye.
The Company anticipates that it will eliminate over 50 million plastic straws each year across its fleet with these changes.
This measure comes in addition to other environmental measures underway by the company to minimize waste to landfills, invest in emerging technologies and reduce CO2 emissions. As a member of Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Alliance, the company is actively working towards solutions that will mitigate plastic waste entering the ocean.
In 2012, Ocean Conservancy launched the Trash Free Seas Alliance, uniting industry, science and conservation leaders who share a common goal for a healthy ocean free of trash. The Alliance provides a constructive forum focused on identifying opportunities for cross-sector solutions that drive action and foster innovation for reducing ocean pollution.
Eliminating single-use plastic straws across our global fleet and island destinations builds on our global environmental program ‘Sail & Sustain’ and further reduces our environmental footprint. As a member of the Trash Free Seas Alliance®, we are committed to doing our part to protect the world’s oceans for future generations to enjoy,
…said Frank Del Rio, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.
We commend Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings for this important step to reduce single-use plastics. Plastic straws are just a fraction of the plastic in the ocean, but they are always among the top ten items collected during Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup and can be deadly to ocean wildlife, which is why we have long urged our supporters to skip the straw when they can,
…added Janis Searles Jones, chief executive officer of Ocean Conservancy.
Plastic is considered a significant threat to the world’s ecosystems and plastic waste management is a main challenge of the shipping industry to address.
This summer, the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators (AECO) said it is working with cruise operators on identifying how the expedition cruise industry can drastically reduce the use of disposable plastics on ships.
In early 2018, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line also revealed plans to eliminate single-use plastics from its fleet operations on its three lines, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises and Royal Carribean International.
In a bid to respond to this global challenge, the European Commission proposed in late May new EU-wide rules to target the 10 single-use plastic products most often found on Europe’s beaches and seas, as well as lost and abandoned fishing gear.
