G Adventures is calling on travel partners to join forces to cut the use of single-use plastics in tourism.
The ‘Plastics Partnerships Project’ comes after the firm recognised that it needed to engage more partners to help to have a greater impact.
The small group adventure operator hopes to provide clean drinking water for as many travellers as possible, so they can replace disposable plastic water bottles with reusable alternatives.
After an approach to its hotel supply chain, 80% have committed to providing clean drinking water for travellers by January 2020, which equates to up to 3.5 million bottles being saved a year by G Adventures’ 200,000 travellers.
The company has also partnered with industry travel experts, Travel Without Plastic, to develop tools and resources to help reduce single-use plastic throughout its operations.
Responsible travel and social enterprise vice president Jamie Sweeting admitted that it needed to further engage not only with its staff, but also suppliers, agency partners and travellers.
He said: “We’re starting in a manageable way, with a focus on reducing the use of single-use plastic water bottles.
“We already take steps globally to reduce plastic in our offices and on our water-based tours, and we actively participate in beach clean-ups where we can. We know we can do more, however, but we can’t do it alone.
“The Plastics Partnership Project is an invitation to work together to make small changes that can collectively make a big difference to our planet and its people.
“More than 350 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year and eight million of those end up in our oceans. Working collaboratively enables us to drive even more change in behaviour.”