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. In 2020, Iberostar officially became a signatory of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative (GTPI). In doing so, we joined 45 leading tour-ism companies, suppliers, business associations, NGOs, consultancies and certification schemes in committing to eliminating unnecessary single-use plastics, transitioning to reuse models and using reusable, recyclable, or compostable plastic packaging and items. GTPI requires tourism organizations to make a set of concrete and actionable commitments by 2025:
Eliminate problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging and items
1. Take action to move from single-use to reuse models or reusable alternatives
2. (Engage the value chain to) move towards 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable
3. Take action to increase the amount of recycled content across all plastic packaging and items used
4. Collaborate and invest to increase the recycling and composting rates for plastics
5. Report publicly and annually on progress made towards these targets
Within Iberostar, we have our commitment to becoming waste free by 2025 and carbon neutral by 2030. Additionally, this year we accomplished eliminating single-use plastics from our entire operations. GTPI requires businesses in the tourism sector to commit to the set of actionable commitments by 2025, and as we continue to lead the sector we must provide other businesses with the opportunity to learn from our actions. As we continue in our journey, GTPI will allow the sharing of successes and failures and continue pushing the tourism sector forward towards a circular economy. Our journey towards leading responsible tourism is strengthened through the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative. By allowing organizations to come together and work towards a common goal, we can help show the benefits of moving towards a circular economy.
