Variety Cruises pledges to eliminate single-use plastic

Greece-based operator Variety Cruises is to eliminate all single-use plastic across its fleet by the end of 2019 as part of its environmental and sustainability initiatives.

Items including straws, stirrers, cups, lids, bottled water and products wrapped in plastic have already been removed from Panorama II, which currently operates in Indonesia. Variety Cruises will take a phased approach to eradicate single-use plastic from all other ships by the end of the year.

“Variety Cruises aims to create positive change through our operations and to raise and set standards for the Greek and Global tourism industry to follow as we enter a new era of travel driven by sustainability,” said Lakis Venetopoulos, president and CEO of Variety Cruises. “We use UN Sustainable Development Goals as our framework which places sustainability and green ethics sits at the core of our operations at sea and onshore.”

In the UK, Variety is also offering passengers the option to buy carbon offsets when they book their cruise.

“With small vessels Variety’s cruise programme focuses on small group tourism that minimises impact on the communities we visit – our maximum passenger contingent is only 72 people,” said Chris Lorenzo, managing director of Variety Cruises. “We can call in at even the smallest ports of call, enjoy the local environment and leave without changing it.”