Taking Flight with Travel and Tourism Pollution

The current landscape, sustainability is an increasingly vital aspect of our daily lives and of businesses’ operations, drawing focus on carbon-intensive industries like aviation, hotel accommodation including food and beverage (F&B) services.

Encouragingly, there has been an uptake of de-carbonisation practices by public and private players of the sector to transform the travel industry – not only reduce its carbon footprint but also contribute to the growth of local economies.

The travel industry, in particular, has long been associated with high levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and waste generation, not to mention the vast amounts of waste, including plastic bottles, food waste and other single-use items generated from tourism activities.

While it’s impossible to provide an exact figure for total waste generated by the tourism industry in Malaysia, available data from aggregate sources of data suggests significant contributions, particularly in plastic waste generation.

On the other hand, aviation accounts for around 2.5% of global CO2 emissions, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

> Contrails and cirrus clouds: These high-altitude clouds trap heat, amplifying the warming effect.

> Nitrogen oxides: These emissions contribute to ozone formation, which also has a warming effect.

> Water vapor: At high altitudes, water vapor from aircraft emissions can contribute to warming.

Experts opine that the common thread tying the challenges of sustainable aviation and tourism lies in overcoming entrenched systems driven by fossil fuels and unsustainable practices.

Both industries require advancements in technology, infrastructure and regulations, while grappling with high costs and changing consumer behavior.

Basically, it’s based on the economic benefits of sustainable tourism and not just about going green.

With some of the world’s most beautiful beaches paying a heavy price for our plastic addiction, the travel and tourism industry is taking action to reduce its plastic footprint and encourage its customers to do the same.

One of Britain’s biggest tour operators, Thomas Cook, said in November 2018 that it would remove around 70 million single-use plastic items—enough to fill 3,500 suitcases—from domestic operations, planes and branded hotels during the next year.

A pilot scheme in its #noplaceforplastic campaign will run this summer on the Greek island of Rhodes where the company will try out sustainable alternatives and work with the local community and government to improve recycling infrastructure.

Thomas Cook will trial plastic-free toiletries in some of its brand hotels and promote water fountains and other fresh water sources.

The company will also work with sustainable designers Wyatt and Jack to turn broken and discarded inflatables, like lilos and armbands, into bags and holiday accessories.

On its airline, it will remove plastic wrappers on headsets and reduce the size of its duty-free plastic bags.

This is very important because many of the tourist destinations that we travel to do not have appropriate systems for recycling.

Their action is important to create awareness amongst destination stakeholders and, more importantly, to empower them to look for solutions.

While tourism contributes 10 % of global gross domestic product and accounts for one in 10 jobs worldwide.

The UN Environment’s research has shown that the industry’s use of key resources, like energy and water, is growing commensurately with its generation of solid waste, including marine plastic pollution, sewage, loss of biodiversity and greenhouse gas emissions.

The World Wildlife Fund reported in June 2018 that more than 200 million tourists visiting the Mediterranean every summer cause an almost 40% spike in plastic entering the sea.

With 80% of all tourism taking place in coastal areas, this destructive pattern is repeated elsewhere.

Hotel giant Hilton pledged to get rid of plastic straws in all its 650 locations and eliminate plastic bottles from its conferences. Marriott International is eliminating plastic straws and replacing small bottles of toiletries with dispensers in its North American hotels.

MSC Cruises aims to phase-out single-use plastics by March next year, while Norwegian cruise operator Hurtigruten says it has removed all unnecessary single-use plastic items.

Lindblad Expeditions, an adventure cruise company, has said it is now free of single-use plastics with all such items banned from its 13 ships. Royal Caribbean has said its 50 ships would stop using plastic straws by the end of last year.

P&O Cruises and Cunard are also planning to abolish plastic straws, water bottles and stirrers by 2022, while Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has launched an anti-plastics initiative, including a ban on straws.

However, while eliminating plastic products is positive, the industry must do more, because all the food and beverage supplies for hotels and airlines are still rapt in single use plastics.

The World Economic Forum noted that degradation of the natural environment was having a serious effect on the tourism sector: as natural capital depletes—because of over-fishing, deforestation or water and air pollution—so tourism revenues decline.

Given the close relationship between natural resources and a very large segment of the tourism industry, then, a lack of progress on fostering sustainability, both from a general and sectoral point of view, will reduce tourism development opportunities.

The UN World Tourism Organization is developing a way to measure the sustainability of tourism to create an international standard for tourism statistics.

The standard will eventually be able to connect tourism indicators to the Sustainable Development Goals, expanding existing measurements beyond primarily economic indicators.

Beyond industry initiatives, individuals can also play a role. The World Travel and Tourism Council has urged travelers to minimize their plastic footprint by doing four simple things.

Bring your own reusable water bottle and purification system, carry a collapsible tote bag, refuse small bottles of toiletries in hotels and find out where you can recycle your plastic waste.

Simple steps, but if taken by every one of the estimated 1.3 billion international tourists, they could make a world of difference.

UN / ABC Flash Point News 2024.