The challenge
Plastic pollution is one of the most pressing threats to the environment and our wellbeing. Single use plastics take a few seconds to produce, a few minutes to use, but hundreds of years to break down.
Plastic Reduction and Elimination
Our Approach
We track 31 categories of plastic including bags, bottles, straws, gloves, caps, cotton buds, cling film, pastry piping bags, tapes, coffee capsules, condiments, candies and wrappers. Our first steps are to reduce use, replace with biodegradable alternatives, and target the elimination of plastic straws, bottles and bags at all our properties.
Our Goal
Reduce and ultimately eliminate single use plastic.
Our Progress
Since our pledge to reduce single-use plastic on Earth Day 2018, we have tracked 31 categories of plastic for reduction. Compared to a 2017 baseline, we have reduced single-use plastic by 54%, with 9 million less pieces of plastic used in 2020, and 19.6 million pieces of plastic prevented from going to landfill or the environment since 2018. Over 2,100 km of cling film has been reduced, almost the equivalent distance from Singapore to Manila.
Our efforts have reduced to eliminate, and where suitable alternatives are yet to be found, replaced with compostable or biodegradable alternatives. Of the three target items we prioritised, we have reduced 2.5 million straws (99.7% reduction), 1.8 million bottles (41.6%) and 1.7 million bags (53.0%). Bintan added a water bottling plant in 2020, eliminating over 400,000 plastic bottles annually. The top-ten performing properties have reduced single-use plastic by more than 80%, with four properties achieving reductions over 90% in 2020.
While some of the reductions in 2020 may be attributed to reduced use due to temporary closures, some item use increased due to COVID associated health measures. The overall trend is of continuing reduction, despite a net increase of three properties since 2017 (5 openings, 2 closures).