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Cruising and it's impact on the environment is becoming under more focus by cruise passengers, environmental groups and governments around the world. I explore the 5 things that I see and read that cruise lines are doing, and focusing on, to improve cruising impact on the environment. Some of these are about the ships, some about the ports and how passengers and ships interact with all of this. Find out what these are and what difference they should make to cruising and the environment.
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Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 60+ cruises.
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what are the things that cruise lines
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are doing to improve the environmental
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impact of cruising
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I'm Gary Bembridge this is another of my
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tips for travelers there's no doubt that
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people travelers everywhere are becoming
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more more concerned about the
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environmental impact of travel whether
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it's buses whether it's trains whether
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it's flight and importantly of course
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whether it's cruising cruising is
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growing it's becoming more popular it's
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not going away so what are the cruise
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lines doing to address the environmental
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impact of ships cruising all around the
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world there are six critical things that
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they are doing starting with this one
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the most important area that cruise
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lines are focusing on to reduce the
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issue of environmental impact is in the
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area of carbon emissions where the goal
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is to reduce carbon emissions by 40
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percent by 2030 and they're doing that
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by using a whole range of things that
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were not even possible ten years ago and
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some even five years ago first of all
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one of the most well known things is
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they use scrubbers scrubbers are devices
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which attempt to take out most of the
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bad things that are emitted through
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burning fossil fuel so things like
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sulfur and particle matter 60% of cruise
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ships today currently use scrubbers and
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they can reduce sulfur by 98% particle
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matter by 50% there was some controversy
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around scrubbers for a period of time
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because the process which uses water
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some of that was being released into the
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ocean which is now largely not done by
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cruise ships because of the potential
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knock-on effect to the marine pollution
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the second thing which is one of the
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most significant changes is the change
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in fuels that they're using and there's
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a big drive to move to LNG which is
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liquefied natural gas so that's still a
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fossil fuel but is a dramatically better
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fossil fuel it has no dust it has no
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soot it has no particles and it can
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reduce sulfur emissions by another 99%
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so almost entirely and it can
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dramatically reduce nitrogen oxide
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emissions by up to 85 percent compared
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to current fuels to
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ships at the time recording are already
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in service using LNG and there's 26 on
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order and a lot of the new ships now
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being ordered by the big corporations so
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Carnival Corporation Royal Caribbean for
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example most of those new ships are LNG
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ships and they're using them across all
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of their brands this is seen as one of
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the most significant and biggest changes
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is the change to LNG that's going to
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have a massive impact on carbon
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emissions however there is another thing
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that people are doing with fossil fuels
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and that's using ultra-low sulfur fuel
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so these are available they were largely
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used in very sensitive areas so they
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might be used in some of the arctic
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areas sometimes in Alaska and sometimes
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I've been the Norwegian fjords some
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cruise lines are starting to only use
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these fuels so they're I guess they're
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more expensive which is what's holding
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people back but if you take Hapag Lloyd
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for example the German based cruise line
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which is ultra luxury from 2020 then
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we'll only use ultra low sulfur fuels
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across their entire fleet so that is
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another way the cruise lines are
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starting to dress it so LNG is the big
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push at ultra low sulfur or marine oil
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is the other there are two other really
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interesting innovations Hurtigruten for
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example at the time recording is just
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launched a dual fuel system which uses
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battery power and marine oil so do fuel
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but like cars increasingly using both
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electric and petrol that's a big
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initiative the other thing which hoody
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Girton are doing which is very
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interesting is moving to biofuel so this
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is looking at using natural products so
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for example the waste from the fish
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industry to turn those into fuel to
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motor their ships so you've got dual
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fuel and increasingly biofuel being used
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by some cruise lines the fifth bunch of
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technology that Cruise Lines are using
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is a really interesting one and this is
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through the use of very special paints
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on the hull but also technology which i
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think was originally introduced by Royal
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Caribbean which blows bubbles along the
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hull to reduce the drag and that makes a
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huge difference in the amount of fuel
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that's burnt because the ship's can move
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much more efficiently through so there's
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lots of technology around the design of
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the hulls and how you can make the hulls
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more streamlined through bubble
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technology paint technology to make the
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ship's just more efficient and
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less fuel the six area is a really
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important one and it's particularly
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around port so ships are in port all day
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which they normally are they are of
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course if they're using fossil fuels
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burning and having emissions so what the
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move is is to move to ships literally
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plugging in to shore side so at the
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moment it's relatively restricted but
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increasingly ships are being developed
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or converted so they can actually plug
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into the electric system and electric
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grid in the ports at the time of
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recording there were 30% of cruise ships
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fitted with this capability and there
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was a whole bunch of our 20% being
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refitted and almost all of the new ships
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that are being built are fitted with
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these new systems so plug in power
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imports is a key way of improving the
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air quality in port towns so those are
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the six ways that cruise lines are
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focusing on the most important issue of
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reducing carbon emissions the second
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area the cruise lines are focusing on to
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reduce their environmental impact is one
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that gets the most publicity in practice
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and that's the reduction of single-use
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plastics like so many people are trying
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to do generally manufacturers and people
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around the world are trying to reduce
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single-use plastics most cruise lines
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have now moved away from using straws
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either you have to ask for straw or
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increasingly they're moving to be site
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level or stores that can be basically
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combustible so that's the most visible
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thing but think it's talked about the
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most but most cruise lines are also
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removing things like the little small
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toiletry bottles that you get to have
6:00
big refillable bottles or pump
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dispensers they're also doing things
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like getting rid of water bottles or
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plastic water bottles used to be given
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when you went on excursions or in your
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room they're replacing them with glass
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bottles or refillable bottles and
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they're providing their own water which
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they're making on board
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sometimes partnering with various eco
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water generating systems so try to get
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rid of lots of plastic bottles the stats
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when you hear how many plastic bottles
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were used in cruise ships is quite
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staggering so it's time to get rid of
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some of those things in the customer
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facing area so for example on the most
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recent cruise hours on and oceania you
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don't get little plastic lids anymore on
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the cups would
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stirrers not plastic stirrers so all
6:40
those customer-facing things but also
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what they're trying to do in the supply
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chain like many manufacturers and
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supermarkets are doing is getting rid of
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as much single-use plastics as possible
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of course because plastic in the ocean
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is a huge issue and it's something that
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the industry is trying to really get rid
6:55
of single-use plastics the third area
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that Cruise Lines are focusing on to
7:00
improve their environmental impact is in
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the area of recycling now for quite a
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long time cruise ships have been pretty
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good on the recycling area but they have
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become even more aggressive onboard
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every single cruise ship you'll have an
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environmental officer and if you're on a
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cruise I recommend you actually try and
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meet with them or go on the tours that
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they run it's claimed that our cruise
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ship will do 60 to 80 percent more
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recycling than a person will do at home
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and everything on the ship is really
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sorted and structured because bear in
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mind if you're on a cruise ship there to
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do something with it so what they do now
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is they click to the glass they sawed
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the glass the cardboard the paper and
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they basically then sort that and
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package it up grind it down and when
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they head into port they sell it on or
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move it on to recycling so there's a lot
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of recycling going on board the cruise
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ship and of course because they have to
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do it because of all regulations about
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what you can and can't put in the ocean
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they have become very regimented at
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recycling the fifth area is around water
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so bear in mind that cruise ships are
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actually allowed to dispose of treated
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water into the ocean if there's certain
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speed and distance out also if you
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process sewage the same thing applies
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they have to treat sewage to a very high
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level before can be released into the
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ocean now that is not a maritime law
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that is a cruise line Association rule
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but what cruise lines have done is
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they've moved to really advanced water
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processing systems so they're able to
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generate water process water treat water
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so it's very high grade before they put
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it into the ocean in some cases of
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course it is also or floated in port but
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they basically treat the water at a very
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high level so when it goes back into the
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ocean it is not going to cause any
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damage within the ocean and this is
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something that's become very regulated
8:42
and strong rules within the cruise line
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Association so advanced water systems
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have now been brought out on many many
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ships and all
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chips have that whole process the sixth
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area the croutons are focusing on is one
8:56
that I think probably personally I think
8:57
is still a lot of work to be done and
9:00
this is the whole area of responsible
9:01
and over tourism anyone who's been on a
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cruise particularly some parts of Europe
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or the Caribbean
9:07
will know that the towns and places can
9:11
be extremely overrun by travelers
9:14
whether it's from big cruise ships or
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even on river cruises so lots of
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cruisers are pouring out it into places
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that can't really cope and the industry
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is starting to do more more work around
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over tourism so they're working for
9:26
example with the mayor of Dubrovnik
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they're working with the Venice
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authorities because that's a place it
9:31
gets really overrun place like Santorini
9:33
took at hub the cruise ships can arrive
9:35
stagger times different times try and
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get travelers who on cruises to sort of
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head out from the obvious places and
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spread both the impact and the money
9:45
further out into the country and the
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areas that they're traveling in it's an
9:49
area that I think needs a lot more work
9:51
but certainly something that the cruise
9:52
line associations understanding they
9:54
need to do much more work on don't think
9:56
they are doing and we've seen quite a
9:58
lot of progress on is partnering with
10:00
big important organizations to basically
10:03
make more of an impact so for example
10:05
some of the ones that are worth noting
10:07
are as follows the Carnival Corporation
10:10
they support the nature's conservation
10:13
mapping ocean wealth program see one
10:16
have a partnership with UNESCO which
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helps invest in heritage sites world
10:21
heritage sites and responsible tourism
10:23
around those sites Royal Caribbean has a
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partnership with the World Wildlife Fund
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to try and help educate the cruiser and
10:31
also help fund programs to support
10:33
wildlife and the environment and nature
10:36
and MSC Cruises partners with mer ovo
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which is an Italian marine conservation
10:42
association so whilst I think this
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progress being made I think there's a
10:46
lot of work to be done over the next
10:48
couple of years by the cruise industry
10:49
to really focus on the area of
10:51
environmental impact and over tourism
10:54
cruising of course does have a big
10:56
impact on the environment like many
10:59
forms of transportation do the cruise
11:01
industry know that they have
11:03
to address that and become better at
11:05
doing it so those are the six things
11:07
that they're currently doing to try and
11:10
improve the impact they have on the
11:11
environment I have many more cruise tips
11:15
for travelers so why don't you watch
11:17
another one of those videos right now
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