TORONTO — In celebration of Earth Day and alongside its parent company, The Travel Corporation (TTC), Trafalgar has announced the removal of single-use plastic (SUP) water bottles from its coaches from 2019 as part of its continued commitment to being SUP-free on their trips by 2022.

Powered by TreadRight, the not-for-profit foundation created more than a decade ago by TTC, ‘JoinTrafalgar’ shares TreadRight’s mission to make travel matter.

Pioneering the fight for a sustainable future for 10 years through its JoinTrafalgar program, Trafalgar says its mission falls under several pillars including having a positive impact to people, places and wildlife, and to care for the planet. The company says its SUP announcement today is another way it’s continuing to build on its commitments to the wellbeing of the planet.

The move joins other single-use plastic removal from Trafalgar’s existing operations practices, from using reusable, durable luggage and name tags from recycled materials, guest tote bags made from recycled materials and also the banning of single use plastics within the brands offices around the globe.

Trafalgar estimates that its latest initiative estimates that this will eliminate over five tons of plastic waste in the next five years.

“Our passionate, caring global team is unified in its total commitment to our mission to make travel matter. This means changing a number of ways we’ve operated in the past. This announcement marks an important next step in fulfilling our pledge to eliminate all non-essential single-use plastics across our all our operations by 2022,” says Brett Tollman, Chief Executive, TTC and founder of The TreadRight Foundation.

“We are working with our partners on the ground to make sure clients still have access to clean drinking water and will be identifying convenient points along the way they can safely and responsibly source drinking water.”

The brand has also released the ‘Agents Guide to Making a Difference’. Tollman says the easy-to-follow guide is full of simple tips and small changes travel advisors and other customer-facing members of the industry can make that can have a big impact.

The importance of the decision and what it means for the industry was today echoed by Trafalgar’s Global CEO Gavin Tollman. “The war on plastic is essential and needs to happen now,” he said. “The travel industry has a responsibility to do their part, consider the impact of SUP and what we can collectively do as an industry to make a difference.”