Disneyland Paris banishes plastic straws

Disneyland Paris this week announced a series of measures to make Europe’s biggest private tourist attraction more environmentally friendly, including banning plastic straws.

Plastic straw ban among initiatives at Paris Disneyland to tidy up its act

Disneyland Paris announced on Monday (Apr 15) several initiatives to limit its impact on the environment, including increasing its rate of "recovery" of waste, and the banning of plastic straws in the park, effective from Thursday. Fully biodegradable paper versions will be distributed only if patrons request them.

The Disney park has around 15 million visitors per year and produced 19 tonnes of waste last year

Disneyland Paris announced on Monday a series of measures aimed at limiting its impact on the environment and increasing its rate of "recovery" of waste. 

Among these measures; 

• plastic straws will be banned, effective from Thursday 
• the offer of only recycled plastic bags in shops 
• and a project to install solar panels in the parking lot to get more power from renewable energy

Europe’s leading private tourist destination, the site located in Marne-la-Vallée near Paris is also France’s leading single-site employer, with some 16,000 employees. 

"We are like a city", summarises Nicole Ouimet-Herter, manager in charge of the environment at Disneyland Paris. 

Source: Europe1.fr

A 50% waste recovery rate with room for improvement

Carton, glass, paper or packaging: 20 categories of waste are sorted before being sent to specialised reprocessing companies. At the same time, some 8,000 tonnes of other waste is incinerated "with energy recovery". 

"At present, we have a ‘material’ recovery rate of 50% for operational waste" – almost all of those produced on site – "and we expect to reach 60% by 2020," says Ouimet-Herter.

As of Thursday, Euro Disney, operator of Disneyland Paris, will replace the plastic straws with 100% biodegradable paper straws "distributed on request from visitors", and no longer automatically with drinks, and which are produced in France, according to the statement released Monday.

Disneyland Paris also indicates that, from next week, "plastic bags systematically donated" to visitors during their purchases will be replaced by bags "made of 80% recycled plastic", and sold for €1-2.

From the month of June also, "many" of the eight hotels in the park will offer in the bathrooms not individual small bottles for shower gel or shampoo, but large "refillable" bottles.

Euro Disney, the French subsidiary of the American group The Walt Disney Company, also says "work" on a project to install solar panels in the visitor parking, with the aim of "increase the percentage of use of renewable energy" – which represent 10% of the total current consumption of the site.

Source: Europe1.fr