Stena Line replaces plastic shopping bags

Written by Nick Blenkey
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Biodegradable bag is made from made from the bio material Biodolome

JUNE 20, 2017 — Stena Line distributes almost one million plastic shopping bags every year on board the 36 vessels operating on the ferry company’s 20 routes in Europe. Now they are are being replaced with a fully biodegradable bag.

”Plastics ending up in the oceans is a growing environmental problem. Therefore we have set the ambitious target to phase out shopping bags and disposables from plastics onboard all our ferries during the coming year,” says Erik Lewenhaupt, Head of Sustainability at Stena Line.

In 2016 Stena Line introduced a plastic bag made from 80 percent recycled plastics. Now that bag is being replaced by a fully biodegradable and compostable carrier bag, made from the bio material Biodolomer, produced in Sweden by GAIA BioMaterials AB. The degradation time depends on temperature and environment, but in the optimum case it is 60 days.

The change to a biodegradable carrier bag is an important step in Stena Line’s efforts to phase out all bags and consumables made from plastics during 2017-2018 onboard all 36 Stena Line ferries. During this summer more than 1.3 million disposable coffee cups onboard will also be replaced with a biodegradable alternative.

Stena Line’s sustainability efforts includes the entire company; onboard, in ports, terminals and offices.

“We focus on four key strategic areas based on the Sustainable Development Goals developed by UN and this is connected to goal number 12 – Responsible consumption and production,” says Lewenhaupt.

The other three focus areas are: good health and wellbeing, affordable and clean energy, and life below water.

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