Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, world’s largest cruise company, 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 particular, the President and CEO of Royal Caribbean Internationals, Michael Bayley, told the Telegraph that the line had cooperated with its sister firms to investigate ways to reduce the amount of plastics used in the daily operations of their combined 38 ships and ultimately terminate all single-use plastic.
The company will target initially single-use disposable plastics, such as drinks bottles. Then, it will seek to cut down on the quantity of plastic used in the business, like chairs. The ultimate goal is to influence supply chain.
However, the company did not reveal when this is going to happen, as the team is currently trying to identify exact ways as well as the magnitude of the challenge. “It won’t happen in three months,” Mr. Bayley was quoted as saying.
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. A team of researchers in a recent study found out that the vast amount of plastic that is currently on the oceans, is directly linked to outbreaks of disease in the coral reefs.
Recently, the European Commission released a new proposal for a revised law to govern the delivery of waste from ships in ports and fishing harbours. The new proposal aims to achieve a higher level of protection of the marine environment and introduces measures to prevent marine litter. It also wants to ensure that there is the necessary port reception facilities available, to promote a waste notification from ships and transparency of the waste delivery fee charging structures.
