Carnival pilot program aims to reduce single-use glass at sea

A new pilot program is introducing closed-loop packaging to the cruise industry aboard Carnival Cruise Line ships through a collaboration that includes Bacardi and circular economy technology company ecoSPIRITS.

The pilot will determine if re-usable containers developed by ecoSPIRITS can be used to serve Bacardi rum on Carnival ships, in turn reducing single-use packaging by 95 per cent.

The concept is being tested for three months on three ships operating from Miami: Carnival Celebration, Carnival Horizon and Carnival Sunrise.

“As we continue to work towards our sustainability goals, the collaborative work of our beverage team, ecoSPIRITS and Bacardi is a great example of thinking in ways that are truly out-of-the-box, or in this case – out-of-the-bottle, to develop new partnerships and practices that further our ongoing efforts,” said Zachary Sulkes, senior director of beverage operations at Carnival.

To support the collaboration, ecoSPIRITS created a specialized version of its patent-pending closed loop glass packaging format, the ecoTOTE 3.0SC Cruise Edition, specifically for the maritime environment.

Each ecoTOTE replaces approximately four bottles of Bacardi rum and each one is used, cleaned and refilled approximately 100 times, thereby creating a closed loop system.

The rum will be transferred from ecoTOTE to serving format using ecoSPIRITS’ SmartPour technology. New silver and red Bacardi-branded SmartPours will be placed in select bars on the three ships for beverage team members to serve cocktails featuring the rum.

ecoSPIRITS first developed its patent-pending closed loop system – the world’s first low carbon, low waste distribution technology for premium spirits and wine – in 2018.

The new collaboration will also support the ecoSPIRITS Oceans Program.

For each ecoTOTE delivered as part of the pilot, a donation will fund the removal of more than two pounds of single-use plastic, glass and other man-made wastes removed from endangered marine environments.

Currently, Carnival recycles single-use glass items. Each ship in the fleet is outfitted with a recycling center, where crew members sort paper, plastic and glass recyclables.

Last year, Carnival processed more than 11 million pounds of recyclables.

For more info, click here.  

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!  Click here to follow PAX on Facebook.