MSC Cruises is following in the footsteps of Royal Caribbean by announcing plans to remove single-use plastic from their ships.

Antonio Paradiso, managing director of UK & Ireland at MSC Cruises, spoke to Cruise Trade News about the plans in Genoa where the line was celebrating the christening of their newest ship, MSC Seaview.

Though Paradiso was reluctant to put a firm date on when we could expect to see the removal of unnecessary plastics across the cruise line’s fleet, he put an estimate of within “12 months” as a realistic timeframe.

“We are looking at it. We are already recycling plastic and reducing the use of plastic across our fleet drastically,” said Paradiso.

“I would say that within the next 12 months we should be able to adopt such a measure.”

Paradiso was quick to point out that MSC Cruises already has a good track record when it comes to environmental policies.

The line has received the Seven Golden Pearls from the Bureau Veritas – an international classification agency specialising in environmental policy – and RINA’s Green Star 3 award for their work on reducing the environmental impact their ships have on the oceans.

“MSC Seaview is the most eco-friendly ship in the world right now,” continued Paradiso.

“It is an ongoing process and we are really, really pleased that from 2021 we will be launching four ships powered by LNG – Liquified Natural Gas – the best technology available right now.

“The goal here is to get to a zero impact on the sea and all the cruise lines will strive to have the best technology available at the time.”