Thomas Cook : It’s no time to take a break from saving the planet

It's no time to take a break from saving the planet

June 10, 2019

Alice Macandrew, Group Corporate Affairs Director

It's fair to say that the last 18 months has seen a heightened and collective awareness of our environmental impact; as consumers, we've started to recognise the scale of the issues facing us and protecting the planet is increasingly interwoven into the decisions we make and how we live our lives.

However, despite our best intentions, we don't always uphold environmentally-friendly practices when we're away from home. According to a Thomas Cook customer survey, we're almost half as likely to recycle when on holiday versus at home - 42% say they recycle on holiday versus 77% at home. Similarly, while just over half of us limit their use of disposable plastic when at home, that drops to 35% of us when we're away.

It's easy to see how a haze of holiday bliss can blur the line between indulgence and wastage, but balancing our need to relax and let-go with a little more awareness of how our actions are impacting the environment could go a long way.

The travel and tourism industry has a huge role to play here. We need to support holidaymakers to behave more sustainably abroad. And reassuringly, seven in ten Brits are in favour of more prompts from their holiday company to help them do the right thing.

Six months ago, Thomas Cook launched its noplaceforplastic campaign. We pledged to eliminate single-use plastic wherever possible throughout our supply chain; substitute existing plastic items for sustainable alternatives; and give a new lease of life to plastic that would otherwise be thrown away. We will also work with destination governments, other tour operators, our customers and employees, to strengthen recycling infrastructure, encourage new ways of working, and help people to make more sustainable choices.

Our commitment is to remove 70 million single-use plastics - equivalent to 3,500 suitcases full - within 12 months. This will come from across our operations at home, on our planes and in our own-brand hotels. So far, 12 million items have been abolished, with a further 69 million identified by the end of this summer.

As well as removing the big volume items like straws and stirrers, we are also rolling out biodegradable bags for our in-flight duty free purchases, replacing plastic cups with sugar cane versions in selected hotels as well as removing over one million items across our offices including plastic cutlery, sauce sachets and introducing bamboo coffee cups.

Additionally, with an estimated 51,000 inflatables left behind at our resorts each summer, we've partnered with sustainable bag brand Wyatt and Jack to transform discarded inflatables, lilos and abandoned children's armbands into trendy new products, such as wash bags and totes. A pilot of the upcycling initiative is launching at own-brand family hotel Sunwing Kalithea this summer.

The challenge is huge and we know how much we have to do. But we also know we have to start somewhere. Our hope is that by showing our commitment to do something, we will be able to influence others to work with us to cut radically the amount of plastic in the holiday industry, for the sustainable benefit of our employees, the destinations we love and, of course, our customers.