Examples of cruise ships to reduce plastic

The Cruise company AIDA Cruises has been engaging since many years in reducing plastic waste. By the end of 2021, AIDA has already reduced the number of single-use plastic items on board their ships by more than 70 percent compared to 2018 e.g. by the following measures:

• Switching from plastic bags to reusable bags for shopping.
• Laundered clothes from guests are delivered without plastic foil.
• No bin liners used in cabins and bathrooms.
• No plastic straws and drink stirrers, but bio- degradable or wooden items used.
• Cookies without plastic package are served with coffee.
• Care products without microplastic
• Reusable instead of single-use cups.
• No disposable cutlery used, i.e. ice cream spoons from metal.
• Replacement of single packaging (for example jam, butter, and Nutella) by dosing dispensers.
• Fresh fruits and vegetables are delivered without stickers and plastic wrapping.

Since 2018, TUI Cruises have been implementing a successful initiative called “Wasteless” to reduce plastic waste aboard their ships. The following measures were taken:

• The amount of waste on board of TUI ships has been reduced by 4,000 plastic bottles a day since 2012, by replacing plastic bottles with glass carafes and installing water dispensers.
• There are also publicly accessible water dispensers and water carafes for employees on land.
• Glass or sugar cane straws instead of plastic. In general, straws are only used for specific drinks or on request
• Guests are offered reusable shopping bags made from recycled PET instead of single-use plastic or paper bags, generating fleet-wide savings of about 200,000 plastic and paper bags per year.
• In the kitchens, reusable aprons made from cotton fabric are used by all staff instead of single-use plastic aprons, reducing 1.5 million plastic aprons going to waste each year fleet-wide.
• Ban of plastic stirrers or picks for drinks, only wooden stirrers offered.
• Butter without single-use wrapping by providing butter dispensers at buffets, reducing approx. 10,220,000 plastic wrappings fleet-wide.
• Soap and shampoo dispensers instead of miniature plastic bottles, saving 380,000 single-use bottles per year, microplastic-free care products.
• Slippers are provided without the plastic packaging, reducing 250,000 single-use wrappings per year.
• Switching from plastic bags to reusable hemp rope for attaching ordered newspapers to the cabin door. This saves around 51,100 plastic bags per year across the fleet.