The Travel Corporations (TTC) family of brands are banning single use plastics.  The announcement comes as TTC, under the guidance of their not-for-profit TreadRight Foundation, officially instituted an immediate ban of more than 60 types of single-use plastic items such as straws, stir sticks, water bottles, plastic bags, and cutlery from its 40 global offices across its exceptional portfolio of brands.

At Thompsons Africa we have embraced the drive and are recycling all single use plastics in the building (single-use plastic is any plastic that can only be used once before being disposed of).

What We’ve Done As a Start?

Recycling bins have been positioned in our Thompsons Africa Durban Head Office.  Bins from desk areas have been removed.  Staff will be responsible for ensuring their waste is disposed of in the relevant recycling bins provided.  Our canteen EatFresh has committed to the cause and offer discounts when staff use their own coffee mugs for take away coffee, plastic drinking straws are no longer provided, plastic disposable cutlery is being phased out and no further polystyrene take away containers are being provided.

Why Are We Taking This Important Step?

‘Today, our world creates and uses too much plastic. It is one of the most dangerous, damaging by-products of the consumption-oriented world we live in today. The equivalent of a large dump truck of used plastic goes into our oceans each minute, never decomposing but remaining there forever. The disposal of used, non-biodegradable plastics has massive health and other risks associated with their use and disposal. These include, most seriously, the pollution of our oceans, wildlife and water, and there is substantial scientific research available that proves that decomposing plastics are creating serious global problems. Plastics degrade very slowly and can exist in the environment for thousands of years. Annually, over 19 billion pounds of plastics are dumped into our oceans and this is expected to double by 2025. In fact, it is projected that there could be more plastics than fish in our oceans by 2050.’ – Independent UK

We are excited to have taken the first steps in the journey towards changing our world!