By
Rebecca Gibson |
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) is to ban plastic straws from the 50 ships in its Azamara Club Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Pullmantur Cruceros, Royal Caribbean International and TUI Cruises fleets from 2019.
For more than a year, all five cruise brands have been operating a ‘straws upon request’ policy, but this will be stopped at the end of 2018. From next January, guests will be given paper straws and the brands will introduce Forrest Stewardship Council-certified wood coffee stirrers and bamboo garnish picks.
RCL has also started a plastics audit and will focus on reducing and eliminating other single-use plastics – such as condiment packets, cups and bags – by 2020. RCL’s plastics initiative builds on its Save the Waves programme, which was first introduced in 1992 to help the brand improve the environmental sustainability of its cruise ships.
“Healthy oceans are vital to the success of our company,” said Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of RCL. “For over 25 years, our Save the Waves programme has guided us to reduce, reuse, and recycle everything we can. Eliminating single-use plastics is another step in that programme.”