Sandals Resorts International is to scrap single-use plastic straws and stirrers across its 19 Sandals and Beaches properties.
The Caribbean resorts specialist will ditch the plastic items by November 1 and offer paper alternatives instead upon request.
The move comes as part of a new partnership between Sandals and non-profit organisation, Oceanic Global, with an audit being conducted to determine a plan for eliminating all single-use plastic across its resorts.
The audit will follow guidelines outlined in Oceanic Global’s sustainability toolkit and following the axing of single-use plastic straws and stirrers, Sandals said it would explore opportunities to eliminate other plastics in its resorts by September 2019.
It has already stopped using plastic laundry bags and plastic bags in gift shops.
Sandals’ charity arm, The Sandals Foundation, has also recently launched a number of initiatives to help increase sustainability including the distribution of reusable water bottles in schools across the Caribbean, delivering reusable tote bags to supermarkets across the region and instituting a Solid Waste Reduction Project in Jamaica’s south coast.