Jaya House is a signatory of the Global Tourism Plastic Initiative (GTPI) lead by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Our hotel is stepping forward as a global leader working on solutions that address the root causes of plastic waste and pollution.

Since Jaya House River Park has been #Singleuseplastic free since December 2016, we are aiming to assist and support hotels that are embarking on this process of becoming #plasticfree under the guidance of the UNWTO, WTO and the Ellen MacArthur Foundations.

In addition to the commitment to the objectives of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative, signatories we are also aiming to:
• Lead by example, driving action internally, sharing knowledge, and catalyzing collaborative action throughout the sector.
• Create awareness on the need for the tourism sector to take action and its role as an agent of change.
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The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative 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 a circularity in the use of plastics.

The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative has the objective to tackle plastic pollution by promoting a shift towards circular economy of plastics in tourism operations where plastics never become waste, rather than to completely eliminate plastics from all tourism operations. It is a systemic approach to plastic pollution where we eliminate (all problematic and unnecessary plastic items), innovate (to ensure that all other plastics are reusable, recyclable or compostable) and circulate (to keep plastic in the economy).
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Tourism is one of the hardest hit economic sectors by the COVID-19 crisis. The sector might face a decline of 58% and 78% in international tourist arrivals during 2020 and has 100 to 120 million direct tourism jobs at risk. There are additional impacts, which are still difficult to quantify, such as pollution or threats to the conservation of wildlife and biodiversity, all directly linked to tourism.
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The COVID-19 crisis has emphasised the need to strengthen the resilience of the tourism sector and awakened a sense of unity and interconnectedness among tourism stakeholders. This crisis has highlighted both the fragility of the natural environment and the need to protect it, as well as the intersections of tourism economics, society and the environment like nothing before in history. It represents an opportunity to accelerate sustainable consumption and production patterns and build back better tourism.

The crisis has also raised awareness of the importance of local supply chains and the need to rethink how goods and services are produced and consumed, both key elements of a circular economy. Integrating circularity and further advancing resource efficiency in the tourism value chain represent an opportunity for the tourism sector to embrace a sustainable and resilient growth pathway.

Addressing plastic waste and pollution can be a catalyser of circularity in tourism through the elimination of unnecessary plastics, integrating reuse models safely, engaging the value chain to advance the use of recyclable and compostable plastics and collaborating to increase recycling rates for plastics. The objectives of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative are anchored on these principles. In addition, supporting the shift towards a circularity of plastics can reduce marine litter and plastic pollution, preserve the attractiveness of destinations and trigger multi-stakeholder precompetitive collaboration on topics such as waste management at destination level, which in turn can have a positive effect on health and therefore support a responsible recovery.
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