Disney Cruise Line says it has eliminated more than 99 percent of guest facing, non essential single use plastics across its ships and island destinations, a figure it is putting on the record as of the end of fiscal 2025.
The number comes from a Disney Experiences feature built around the cast and crew doing the work, rather than a formal sustainability report. Barry Compagnoni, vice president of safety, sustainability and medical operations, credits the crew directly, saying they are the ones bringing the goals to life every day and that their impact is visible everywhere you look.
What Is Actually Gone
The straws went first, back in 2018, when the line stopped handing out more than 14 million of them a year. Merchandise bags, plastic cutlery and individual condiment packets followed fleetwide. Disney says the current push is on the less visible packaging behind those items, replacing single portions with bulk containers and moving more service onto reusable ware in dining rooms, quick service venues and buffets.
Retail is the clearest single line item. By switching to reusable shopping bags, the merchandise crew eliminated nearly a million plastic bags a year. Plastic water bottles have been replaced with recyclable aluminum, with refill stations in both guest and crew areas.
The Islands Were The Test Bed
Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point was built from a blank page, and the food and beverage teams used that to design the island’s service without guest facing single use plastics at all. Every meal there is served on reusable dishware with reusable flatware and cups. The same service items have since been introduced at Disney Castaway Cay, which also received redesigned trash cans with separate receptacles for recycling and food scraps so crew can sort waste at the point it is thrown away.
That is the practical difference between a policy and an operation. Anyone who has eaten at Cookie’s BBQ recently has already used the new system without necessarily noticing it.
Where The 99 Percent Comes From
The qualifiers matter. Guest facing excludes plastics used behind the scenes in galleys, engineering and supply chains. Non essential presumably carves out items with medical or safety purposes, though Disney has not published its own definition. Within those boundaries, Disney is claiming near total elimination.
The line has been building toward this for a while. In April 2025 it recycled more than 20 miles of retired mooring lines, roughly 225,000 pounds of plastic, into flowerpots and buckets rather than sending them to landfill. Aboard the Disney Treasure, nearly 90 percent of guest facing costumes include elements made from recycled plastic, and the Little Mermaid production on the Disney Wish uses costumes made from ocean recycled textiles.
Why It Matters Now
Disney Cruise Line has doubled in size, from four ships to eight in a few years, with more on order. Waste scales with capacity, and the line is choosing to make its plastics record public just as booking opened for a season that spans every ship it owns.
The company has not said what the remaining fraction consists of or when it expects to close it. Given the pattern so far, the next targets are likely the packaging guests never see.
The Disney Destiny, the newest ship in the fleet, sailed its first Halloween on the High Seas itinerary this month.
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