• Melco Resorts & Entertainment rolled out a series of measures to reduce SUP this year at its integrated resorts including Studio City (Photo courtesy of Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd.)

Melco Reinforces Commitment to Reduce Plastic

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Melco Resorts & Entertainment announced early this year the development of a roadmap across its global operations to address the use of single use plastic (SUP), including at its integrated resorts City of Dreams Macau, Studio City, Altira Macau, and City of Dreams Manila to reduce the use of problematic plastics and promote circular economy. Melco has committed to remove all SUP bottles throughout Melco’s employee areas by the end of 2019, launch comprehensive waste audits, search for non-SUP alternatives for drinks and substitute usage of F&B containers and cutlery with non-plastic alternatives.

So far, at Melco’s employee areas SUP water bottles have already been replaced with the provision of refill/drinking stations, saving approximately 244 thousand bottles per year, representing 3.5 tonnes of PET plastic.

At the same time, the first comprehensive waste audits of Melco’s integrated resort operations were also undertaken this year, which identified the key sources of plastic packaging in its operations. The majority of Melco’s branded plastic packaging (by weight) comes from beverages served in SUP bottles. To tackle the issue, Melco is seeking alternative solutions which will not only eliminate the use of SUP in its operations, but will also enhance guest experience. In addition, Melco is now replacing SUP F&B containers and cutlery with non-plastic alternatives, which will help reduce 9.5 tonnes of SUP.

In March this year, Melco signed the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment spearheaded by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with UN Environment Programme, and as such was included in the first New Plastics Economy Global Commitment 2019 Progress Report. Published at the Our Ocean Conference in Oslo, Norway on 23rd October, the report provides an unprecedented level of transparency on how almost 200 businesses and governments are reshaping the plastics system.