Dear PET bottles. It's not us, it's you.
It's just not gonna work out.

We're so proud to become the first major tourism operator in New Zealand to stop ordering single-use plastic bottles to sell in our food and beverage outlets – it's all over as of this month!

Most single-use plastic bottles (primarily used by large beverage corporations) are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET). These bottles have a huge carbon footprint in both production and transportation, and large orders of PET bottles travel shrink-wrapped in even more single-use plastic.

Our decision will eliminate more than 50,000 PET bottles from being produced, transported and sold on the mountain every year.

We'll have alternatives to PET bottles available on the mountain that include fresh and carbonated water stations, aluminium cans, and glass. Aluminium cans are easy to recycle, and light to transport – especially when empty and crushed!

Where alternatives to specific products cannot be found in New Zealand, we've decided to stop ordering and selling them altogether.

We're very proud that this isn’t the first time Cardrona has led significant change. In 2018, we stopped using single-use crockery and coffee cups. Other initiatives have included recycling our buildings and infrastructure in a major development project over the last four years. Cardrona was the first tourism operator worldwide to be awarded an Excellent “As Built” rating by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) for the McDougall’s Chondola project.

One of the things we’re most proud of is that many of these initiatives have been led by our frontline staff, especially in the food and beverage team. They have shown that if it can be done, the first step is to just do it!

We're not done yet, either. We recognise that true sustainability isn’t about having zero impact, it’s about giving back. Cardrona is far from perfect, and we know that this journey will never end. We're just excited to keep showing that positive change is possible, no matter what industry you're in!