World Food Travel Association Supports the UN's Global Tourism Plastics Initiative

02/09/2020 10:00

LONDON, Sept. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the World Food Travel Association (WFTA) announced that it has become a signatory of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative, a project led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative (GTPI) unites the tourism sector behind a common vision to address the root causes of plastic pollution. It enables businesses, governments, associations and NGOs to take concerted action, leading by example in the shift towards how we use and dispose of plastics.

"As a signatory of the initiative, we endorse the common vision to address the root causes of plastic pollution in tourism," said WFTA Executive Director Erik Wolf. "We commit to eliminate the plastic items we don't need, and innovate so all plastics we do need are designed to be safely reused, recycled, or composted. We are pleased to endorse this initiative as further evidence of our commitment to reduce the food and beverage packaging waste generated by our industry."

The GTPI requires tourism organisations to make a set of concrete and actionable commitments by 2025. These include:

Eliminate problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging and items by 2025;
Take action to move from single-use to reusable models or reusable alternatives by 2025;
Engage the value chain to move towards 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable, or compostable choices;
Take action to increase the amount of recycled content across all plastic packaging and items used
Commit to collaborate and invest to increase the recycling and composting rates for plastics
Report publicly and annually on progress made towards these targets.

Learn more about the UN's Global Plastics Tourism Initiative here.

ABOUT THE WORLD FOOD TRAVEL ASSOCIATION (WFTA)
The WFTA is a non-profit organisation that was founded in 2001 by its current executive director Erik Wolf. It is recognised as the world's leading authority on food/ culinary/ gastronomy tourism. The WFTA's mission is to preserve and promote culinary cultures through hospitality and travel. Every year, the organisation serves almost 200,000 professionals in 150+ countries. For more information, visit www.WorldFoodTravel.org.

Media Contact: Erik Wolf (+44) 7827 582 554 help@worldfoodtravel.org

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