A new environmental initiative targeting the superyacht industry's plastic consumption has been launched.
Founded in 2017, the Clear Ocean Pact launched at the Superyacht Forum last week and aims to motivate the sector to reduce its dependency on plastics.
The foundation presented its five point plan, which aims to raise the awareness of the sector's plastic footprint and “change its mindset” towards single use plastics.
It encourages them to seek out "viable alternatives, innovations and ideas" instead.
The foundation estimates that every 10,000 crew consumes 3.2 million plastic water bottles a year, equalling 100 tonnes of single use waste.
It recommends a number of products to solve this problem, such as the Berkey Filter, which negates the need to supply drinking water for crew and guests from plastic bottles.
The initiative hopes to win the support of 1,000 superyachts and their crews by 2020 who will agree to implement a number of pledges.
These include avoiding the use of plastic bottled drinking water onboard, filtering and safely disposing of all washing machine microplastic waste and reducing the use of single-use plastic toiletries onboard.
The hope is that the superyacht industry will become an example “to encourage and promote all other industry sectors to take responsibility of their single-use plastic footprint consumption.”
Founder of the Clean Ocean Pact Richard Orme added: “Through the Clear Ocean Pact, I find myself at the beginning of a new chapter in my yachting career with potentially the biggest challenge ahead – uniting an industry to tackle a cause together that is greater than any one organisation within it.”