Has Princess announced new policies on plastic waste?

[neverbeenhere]

1 minute ago, Ombud said:

I wish they would replace that gold mesh bag filled with single use plastics with something more useful like upgraded souvenir quality pen & paper 

 

To keep with the theme— it might be best to get souvenir chalk and a slate. 🤪

 

 

 

 

 

[Ombud]

9 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

To keep with the theme— it might be best to get souvenir chalk and a slate. 🤪

 

Except I'm serious. That little baggie of 'upgraded amenities' is useless.  We already get lotion, shampoo & conditioner wasn't any good and is now non-existent, that bar of soap is the same one in the dish, not sure what the spritzer is for .....

 

A better pen and more than 5 sheets of paper would be a welcome tradeoff IMHO ~~~~ or a 1/2 bottle of wine with 2 wine glasses in the room for Elites / Suites (yes I know Suites already get it so 1 more for them). Its all about cutting down on plastic waste

[pris993]

gosh, going on vacation this is the last thing I would be concerned about???  

[Ombud]

I just wish they'd eliminate single use plastics. But many are used to increasing perks as cruise credits increase. There must be a way to do it with less waste

 

New Zealand cruises have removed the bottle water pkg. Smart 

Edited June 7, 2019 by Ombud

[tip]

3 hours ago, pris993 said:

gosh, going on vacation this is the last thing I would be concerned about???  

 

Some of us care about our impact upon the environment even on vacation.

[tailspintom]

9 hours ago, Ombud said:

I wish they would replace that gold mesh bag filled with single use plastics with something more useful like upgraded souvenir quality pen & paper 

We use them in our guest baths.  We then recycle the plastic when the contents are empty, or partially used. If it bothers you that much, or your local waste management authority has no recycling, you could leave it in the cabin.

 

I am not a big fan of littering in any form but I am somewhat amused by the hand wringing about accidental spillage of plastic from cruise ships.  In the main, the cruise and merchant industries have done a fairly good job of significantly reducing their ocean waste since the inception of MARPOL in 1988. If any headway is going to be made in reducing ocean plastic, it will have to be done on land where 80% of the ocean plastic is being generated.

[Ombud]

33 minutes ago, tailspintom said:

We then recycle the plastic when the contents are empty, or partially used. .....  If any headway is going to be made in reducing ocean plastic, it will have to be done on land where 80% of the ocean plastic is being generated.

Recycling dirty plastics is part of the reason why Malaysia is returning it to US, UK, Canada, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Netherlands, and Singapore. .... So the 20% being maritime trash is insignificant?

 

but thank you for a post illustrating WHY it would need to be replaced by something

 

Edited to ad: On my Sapphire Princess cruise from Singapore - Malaysia - Indonesia - Thailand I took pictures of the trash floating in the ocean. 

Edited June 7, 2019 by Ombud

[Memtn901]

13 hours ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Princess already has an extensive recycling program.

It has been in place for many years and is updated accordingly.

 

Unfortunately their recycling program included illegal dumping of plastics, food waste and contaminated liquid waste. 

[Steelers36]

On Regal.  I believe plastic straws are not being given out by default.  The water bottles have thin caps that are folded back and re-snap into place.  No screw tops that are separate and contain more plastic.  Still the same old Kellogg cereal boxes.  Only some are dumped from larger boxes into serving trays - granola, bran buds, Mueslix.  BTW, I wish Princess has real Muesli and not Kellogg's Mueslix.  But we know things change and so too may the cereal over time.  Most of that packaging is paperboard.

[tailspintom]

26 minutes ago, Memtn901 said:

 

Unfortunately their recycling program included illegal dumping of plastics, food waste and contaminated liquid waste. 

So, using your logic, the EPA has a program to dump toxic waste from gold mines into streams.

 

The Princess program is to conform to its mandated waste management requirements. Is it perfectly executed? Obviously not.

[tailspintom]

1 hour ago, Ombud said:

Recycling dirty plastics is part of the reason why Malaysia is returning it to US, UK, Canada, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Netherlands, and Singapore. .... So the 20% being maritime trash is insignificant?

 

but thank you for a post illustrating WHY it would need to be replaced by something

 

Edited to ad: On my Sapphire Princess cruise from Singapore - Malaysia - Indonesia - Thailand I took pictures of the trash floating in the ocean. 

Just applying the Pareto rule, Ombud.

[Brighton Line]

Just off a Carnival cruise Memorial Day weekend, boxed cereal is gone, pens are gone. Still had one bar of soap not two but they don't have sink dispensers yet. Straws were by request only, no individual butter pads, I'm sure there were other things that I don't remember.

[MissP22]

Looks like we'll almost have to smuggle our own plastic straws soon. 

[pris993]

6 hours ago, tip said:

 

Some of us care about our impact upon the environment even on vacation.

two things, one has to believe in climate and that you can personally have impact, i don't believe in either... 

[antsp]

22 minutes ago, pris993 said:

two things, one has to believe in climate and that you can personally have impact, i don't believe in either... 

The climate change  issue can be argued about for ever. Sending millions of tons of single use plastic to landfill or incinerators is obviously not a good thing to do. 

Edited June 7, 2019 by antsp

[tip]

8 minutes ago, antsp said:

... Sending millions of tons of single use plastic to landfill or incinerators is obviously not a good thing to do. 

 

Thank you for being the voice of reason.

[Ombud]

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Looks like we'll almost have to smuggle our own plastic straws soon. 

Why can't you do without? What will you do when your state follows the lead of California & Washington? Do you REALLY need a single use plastic straw to drink that soda? We are now eating plastic when we eat fish (not me -- I'm a vegetarian) 

 

Or are you just trying to raise a chuckle? 

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/06/forget-great-pacific-garbage-patch-theres-more-plastic-deep-sea/1349571001

 

I will continue to cruise CCL / Princess but wish they would be environmentally conscious 

[JimmyVWine]

2 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Looks like we'll almost have to smuggle our own plastic straws soon. 

Why not bring these?

https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Drinking-Aluminum-Smoothies-Colorful/dp/B06X9WHPT4/ref=sr_1_4?gclid=CjwKCAjwlujnBRBlEiwAuWx4LRN0jTfr_rs8U5qoVUBMaGAR26ofbkRjtuvGsKmRPy9HbXLA7wRbERoCBMYQAvD_BwE&hvadid=316298697993&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1014743&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=7267195826764081116&hvtargid=aud-647006051489%3Akwd-587467681322&hydadcr=24631_9648902&keywords=reusable+aluminum+straw&qid=1559926357&s=gateway&sr=8-4

[JimmyVWine]

13 hours ago, pris993 said:

gosh, going on vacation this is the last thing I would be concerned about???  

If you are going on vacation on the high seas, single use plastics are among the very FIRST things you should care about.  It is one thing to pretend that the plastic one discards in Kansas City won't ever make its way to the ocean, (though I could easily prove this assumption wrong), but to think that single use plastics used on a ship do not impact the aquatic environment is nuts.  One would think that people who cruise love the ocean and everything in it.  And one would think that this subgroup would be leading the charge against introducing more plastic into the ocean.

https://www.earthday.org/2018/04/05/fact-sheet-plastics-in-the-ocean/

 

Fact #5 is particularly disturbing.

 

And then there is this...

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/05/newborn-hawaii-beach-already-polluted-with-plastic/

[Ombud]

11 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

Why not bring these?

https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Drinking-Aluminum-Smoothies-Colorful/dp/B06X9WHPT4/ref=sr_1_4?gclid=CjwKCAjwlujnBRBlEiwAuWx4LRN0jTfr_rs8U5qoVUBMaGAR26ofbkRjtuvGsKmRPy9HbXLA7wRbERoCBMYQAvD_BwE&hvadid=316298697993&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1014743&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=7267195826764081116&hvtargid=aud-647006051489%3Akwd-587467681322&hydadcr=24631_9648902&keywords=reusable+aluminum+straw&qid=1559926357&s=gateway&sr=8-4

1 thing I like about that group of straws is that everyone can have their own color so we don't need to remember which drink is ours. (There's 8 of us but 6 straws does the trick)

[stoneharborlady]

11 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

Why not bring these?

https://www.amazon.com/Reusable-Drinking-Aluminum-Smoothies-Colorful/dp/B06X9WHPT4/ref=sr_1_4?gclid=CjwKCAjwlujnBRBlEiwAuWx4LRN0jTfr_rs8U5qoVUBMaGAR26ofbkRjtuvGsKmRPy9HbXLA7wRbERoCBMYQAvD_BwE&hvadid=316298697993&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1014743&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=7267195826764081116&hvtargid=aud-647006051489%3Akwd-587467681322&hydadcr=24631_9648902&keywords=reusable+aluminum+straw&qid=1559926357&s=gateway&sr=8-4

 

 

I have some of these aluminum straws and hate drinking from them.  I use a straw to keep cold drinks from my teeth.  These are like the aluminum drinking glasses that were popular when I was a kid.  Anyone know if they make heavy plastic straws that can be used more than once?

[JimmyVWine]

2 hours ago, pris993 said:

two things, one has to believe in climate and that you can personally have impact, i don't believe in either... 

Plastic does not exist in nature.  100% of the plastic found in the ocean was created and disposed of by humans.  This alone disproves your second point.  If people are not having an impact with respect to discarded plastic, then what is the root cause?

[JimmyVWine]

4 minutes ago, stoneharborlady said:

 

 

I have some of these aluminum straws and hate drinking from them.  I use a straw to keep cold drinks from my teeth.  These are like the aluminum drinking glasses that were popular when I was a kid.  Anyone know if they make heavy plastic straws that can be used more than once?

Here you go.  These do not conduct and transfer temperature.

https://www.amazon.com/Regular-Reusable-Silicone-Drinking-Straws/dp/B07GSQ331L/ref=sr_1_4?gclid=CjwKCAjwlujnBRBlEiwAuWx4LaTqBYDnv2BD7KzIhidG01dDFb7tm9LHO4BZVLVwipu8m2hp-SmGbBoC8W4QAvD_BwE&hvadid=241909711128&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1014743&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=1808991187269270875&hvtargid=aud-647006051489%3Akwd-1874405789&hydadcr=24660_10400766&keywords=reusable+straws&qid=1559927458&s=gateway&sr=8-4

[stoneharborlady]

3 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

Here you go.  These do not conduct and transfer temperature.

https://www.amazon.com/Regular-Reusable-Silicone-Drinking-Straws/dp/B07GSQ331L/ref=sr_1_4?gclid=CjwKCAjwlujnBRBlEiwAuWx4LaTqBYDnv2BD7KzIhidG01dDFb7tm9LHO4BZVLVwipu8m2hp-SmGbBoC8W4QAvD_BwE&hvadid=241909711128&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1014743&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=1808991187269270875&hvtargid=aud-647006051489%3Akwd-1874405789&hydadcr=24660_10400766&keywords=reusable+straws&qid=1559927458&s=gateway&sr=8-4

Thank you, I will try these.

[peanutter]

Just wanted to add a reason for the WHY question about "needing" to use a straw - I try to keep as much acidic stuff away from my teeth as possible.  This includes tea, coffee, lemonade, coke (rarely drink) and really anything besides water (which I drink a lot of).  I'm fortunate to have healthy teeth and I want to keep them that way.

 

FWIW, I've also seen a few cups and glasses on the clean trays with leftover lipstick on the rim (who knows what is on there that you can't see).   I hate paper straws (get soggy and taste bad) and the harder plastic or metal types but can go for the reusable silicon option.