On July 2, the tra­di­tio­nal ship­ping com­pa­ny Hur­tig­ru­ten cele­bra­tes its 125th bir­th­day and at the same time gives a pre­sent to the envi­ron­ment: From today on Hur­tig­ru­ten wants to banish all dis­posable pla­s­tic from its ships. No pla­s­tic straws, no stir­rers in pla­s­tic cof­fee cups, no pla­s­tic lids and not a sin­gle pla­s­tic bag should then be found on the ships.

This is only logi­cal: ship tra­vel­lers wit­ness the pol­lu­ti­on of the oce­ans with pla­s­tic was­te every day. Most of the pla­s­tic in the oce­ans comes from fishing, but pla­s­tic bot­t­les, pla­s­tic bags or other ever­y­day pla­s­tic artic­les also end up on Norway’s bea­ches by the ton and too often end up in the sto­machs of sea­birds, fish and wha­les.

Pla­s­tic was­te in Mushamna/ Spits­ber­gen

The ban on dis­posable pla­s­tic artic­les will be effec­ti­ve across the enti­re Hur­tig­ru­ten fleet, i.e. both on the legen­da­ry pos­tal ship rou­te from Ber­gen to Kir­kenes, as well as on crui­se ships in polar waters and in all land-based faci­li­ties and also on Spits­ber­gen.

Hurtigruten’s ambi­tious long-term goal is even to beco­me the first pla­s­tic-free ship­ping com­pa­ny in the world. Even if the­re is cer­tain­ly still much room for impro­ve­ment in the crui­se ship indus­try in terms of pol­lu­ti­on and CO2 emis­si­ons, the ban on dis­posable pla­s­tic is a wel­co­me step in the right direc­tion.

Soon free from diposable pla­s­tic: Hur­tig­ru­ten muse­ums­ship in Stok­marks­nes

Source: Hur­tig­ru­ten