World's largest cruise company reduced food
waste per person by 44% over the last five years,
surpassing its 2025 40% target vs 2019 one year ahead of
schedule
Reductions represent $250 million in cost avoidance since 2019
MIAMI, June 10,
2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc
(NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest cruise company,
today announced it achieved a 44% reduction in unit food waste in
2024 compared to 2019 levels, surpassing its 2025 40% reduction
target a full year ahead of schedule and is well on its way toward
its 50% reduction goal set for 2030.
The significant reductions are a result of the company's ongoing
"Less Left Over" food management strategy focused on its
world-class cruise lines finding smart ways to ensure food and
ingredients don't go to waste. Since 2019, the company has avoided
over $250 million in food costs by
finetuning its provisioning, preparation and meal service practices
to further enhance the dining experience for its almost 13.5
million annual guests and to reduce the amount of uneaten food
globally in its operations.
"Our Less Left Over strategy is powered by dozens of large and
small programs and technologies across our cruise lines to cut food
waste by 50% by 2030," said Josh
Weinstein, CEO of Carnival Corporation. "But more than that,
it's also a global rallying cry that is turning everyday actions
into lasting impact by nurturing a shared mindset among our 160,000
talented team members – a mindset that values creativity in
delivering amazing meals for our guests and crew while getting the
most out of our resources. It's great for the planet and our bottom
line."
Optimizing Every Delicious Bite
Carnival
Corporation's success in reducing food waste stems from its
holistic approach to addressing every step of the food lifecycle
onboard its ships and in its land operations, from sourcing to prep
to dining services. This includes:
- Using real-time analytics, intelligent systems and data driven
insights for purposeful ingredient purchasing, dynamic menu
planning, and prep-to-plate operational precision.
- Leveraging AI-powered systems and real-time data tracking to
align food prep with live guest and crew meal service flows and
dining patterns.
- Emphasizing food and meal plating techniques that showcase the
company's culinary creativity while enhancing visual presentation
and minimizing waste.
- Training our crew and empowering them with the knowledge and
confidence to inspire ownership and action in reducing food waste
and loss across every aspect of the operation.
- Serving 'just right' portions so guests enjoy a satisfying meal
that fills the plate with the option to come back for a second
helping.
- Pioneering solutions like donating surplus ingredients and
meals to a growing network of food banks in communities facing food
scarcity, which is continuing to scale significantly for the
benefit of our destination partners.
While the goal is less food left over to discard, just like
eating at home there will always be food and food preparation items
remaining after your meal. In those cases, Carnival Corporation
takes a circular economy approach to find meaningful ways of
creating productive value from any remaining food materials by
transforming what might have been waste into useful resources. One
of the many ways the company is maximizing the usable life of the
food products is to repurpose food scraps into new products – from
upcycling used coffee grounds to produce vegan soap products to
converting used cooking oil into biofuel for its land-based tour
bus operations in Alaska.
Tackling Leftovers with Technology
When leftovers
cannot be repurposed into other resources, Carnival Corporation
still finds ways to ensure there is 'less left over' by investing
in innovative waste management technologies and systems to minimize
the impact of the small amount of unused food scraps that remain.
Going well beyond regulatory requirements, these combined
technologies substantially limit the impact from conventional food
waste disposal methods, such as landfills, while contributing to
even more sustainable and efficient operations.
For example, one way the company treats and manages left-over
food onboard is with its over 630 biodigesters installed fleetwide
as of the end of 2024. These "metallic stomachs" use natural
bacteria to organically break down and liquify uneaten food to a
tiny fraction of its original volume. Carnival Corporation also
relies on over 90 dehydrators and dryers installed across the fleet
to remove excess water from hard-to-break-down food items, such as
fruit rinds, shrinking the remaining hard waste volume by
approximately 90%. The dried material can then be ground down into
an organic pulp for possible use as organic mulch and compost or
offloaded.
Carnival Corporation's food management strategy forms a
cornerstone of its broader waste management and circular economy
initiatives from ship to shore, which aim to manage natural
resources efficiently and focus on keeping products and materials
in use as long as possible through reuse, recycling, refurbishment
and maintenance. These efforts are part of the company's
overarching sustainability vision to reduce its environmental
impact overall and provide sustainable financial results for its
stakeholders. To learn more about Carnival Corporation's purpose
and our positive impact worldwide on people and the planet, go to
www.carnivalcorp.com/impact/.
About Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest global cruise company
and among the largest leisure travel companies, with a portfolio of
world-class cruise lines – AIDA Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line,
Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises,
Princess Cruises, and Seabourn.
For more information, please visit www.carnivalcorp.com,
www.aida.de, www.carnival.com, www.costacruises.com,
www.cunard.com, www.hollandamerica.com, www.pocruises.com,
www.princess.com, and www.seabourn.com.
To learn more about Carnival Corporation's purpose and our
positive impact worldwide on people and the planet, go to
www.carnivalcorp.com/impact/.
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SOURCE Carnival Corporation & plc
