Phasing Out Single Use Plastic Items Products Campaign

The campaign was launched in the Philippines on December 10th. It received great support for the Department of Tourism from the Philippines who adapted the materials to the Philippines context. Plastics have been around the world for a long time and people have become dependent on it, to the point that globally, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute, and five trillion single-use plastic (SUP) bags are used every year, according to the UN Environment Programme. This contributes to the eight million tonnes of plastic being washed to the world's oceans every year, which has affected not just marine biodiversity but also communities and wildlife. Recent reports from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) found that plastic pollution only became worse in the wake of COVID-19 due to an increase in the use and disposal of single-use items such as medical face masks, plastic gloves, hand sanitiser bottles and food packaging. In light of these factors, the Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT), through its sustainability campaign Save Our Spots, has collaborated with the Philippine Center for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development, Inc. (PCEPSDI), through its Transforming Tourism Value Chains (TVC) project, in cooperation with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), in creating an awareness campaign to reduce single use plastics (SUPs) in the tourism sector while keeping in mind health and safety protocols. Key messages of the campaign are aligned with the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative (GTPI), which unites the tourism sector behind a common vision to address the root causes of plastic pollution, by enabling tourism stakeholders to lead by example to shift towards circularity and reduction in the use of plastics. The campaign, funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety under their International Climate Initiative (IKI), also welcomes The Reef-World Foundation as one of its partners in promoting such key messages that are relevant at this time; especially as all parties involved seek a shift to more sustainable tourism practices. The key messages are designed with three audience groups in mind: tourists and guests; hotel managers and procurement officers; and hotel staff. In the campaign messages, tourists and guests are encouraged to travel safely without SUPs by packing only essentials, choosing accredited establishments that observe health protocols and opting for reusable face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) while taking care to wash and sterilise these afterwards. https://reef-world.org/blog/save-our-spots