In July 2026, the TUI Care Foundation expanded its recycling project in Curacao, a constituent country of the Netherlands, to boost the role of tourism in the region by reducing plastic waste through design-for-recycling and packaging material choices.
The foundation, in collaboration with a local organization, Green Phenix, the second stage of Destination Zero Waste Curacao, is also set to incorporate 100 tourism and hospitality businesses, with the aim of collecting, sorting, and recycling 25 metric tons of plastic waste and 30 metric tons of other waste materials.
Packaging Insights in a conversation with Ivory Hackett-Evans, senior manager for Program Development, at the TUI Care Foundation, understands the role of packaging companies and the tourism industry alike in the long-term prevention of plastic packaging waste in island settings.
“Packaging producers can support more circular packaging systems by designing packaging that is manageable in an island context,” she mentions.
“These include avoiding colored PET, mixed-material packaging, unnecessary layers, and plastics without realistic end-of-life solutions.”
The project involves sorting of all plastic at a designated facility, then it is either upcycled at Green Phenix, returned to international recycling value chains, or used for testing potential local applications.
Destination Zero Waste is known to work with more than 40 hotels, restaurants, beach clubs, and other tourism operators, hosting 68 plastic collection points across the island. Green Phenix provides guidance in the form of infrastructure, sorting guidance, and collection services.
Hackett-Evans points out that “because tourism generates a significant volume of packaging waste on islands, these actors can play an important role in shifting from short-term waste management to long-term circular procurement and prevention.”
The TUI Care Foundation also explains that with the growing tourism across the Caribbean, finding sustainable waste management solutions for plastic packaging has become ‘increasingly urgent’ for small islands.
Hackett-Evans explains that PET bottles are the most challenging packaging materials to manage on Curaçao especially if they’re colored.
“Clear PET has some potential for export to specialized recycling facilities, but colored PET has very limited demand on the international recycling market, making it a particularly problematic material for small islands.”
She adds that packaging that combines multiple types of plastics, chemicals, and foils is often not recyclable.
“In practice, these materials often end up in landfill, especially when they are contaminated, degraded, or collected during beach cleanups. By contrast, high-density PE and PP plastics can be processed locally by the Curaçao-based sorting facility that was established in the scope of this project.”
She also highlights that the local upcycler Green Phenix is also a part of material governance discussions on the form of packaging suitable for small islands.
“For islands like Curaçao, the question is not only whether a material is recyclable somewhere in theory, but whether there is a realistic, accessible, and economically viable end-of-life solution in the local or regional context.”
Islands are often disadvantaged in their ability to manage the rising plastic pollution due to factors such as limited infrastructure, geographic isolation, and exposure to ocean currents carrying plastic waste into their territory.
In 2025, Packaging Insights had a conversation with Dr. Rufino Varea, director at the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, about the well-known beverage brand Coca-Cola’s switch from glass to plastic bottles in Samoa, underscoring the role of local and international bodies like the UN in regulating the use of plastic for island nations.
Hackett-Evans says that tourism operators, alongside packaging companies, have a role to play in ensuring plastic packaging circularity.
“Hotels and tourism operators can support circularity by reducing unnecessary plastic packaging, improving waste separation, adopting reusable alternatives, and purchasing products made from locally recovered materials.”
She continues that the tourism sector can also educate staff and visitors to build a culture of circularity within island communities. In addition to scaling up operations in Curaçao, the project also aims to introduce a “regional knowledge-sharing component” across all six Dutch Caribbean islands.
TUI Care Foundation is an independent charitable organization, founded in 2016 by the TUI Group, dedicated to advancing sustainable tourism. The foundation invests in activities for the development of society and preserving nature, such as education for youth, environmental conservation, and local economic development in travel destinations across more than 30 countries.
31 July 2026
30 July 2026
30 July 2026
30 July 2026