Norwegian Cruise Line is ditching plastic water bottles on its ships as the cruise industry comes under fire for for polluting the seas

Norwegian Cruise Line

Norwegian Cruise Line will eliminate single-use plastic bottles from its fleet.

• Norwegian Cruise Line announced on Wednesday that it's banning single-use plastic bottles next year.
• The cruise line will instead use paper water bottles from Just Goods.
• Just Goods' water bottles are made mostly from paper and plant-based plastic, and the company says its materials and production processes produce 74% fewer emissions that are harmful to the environment than a typical plastic water bottle.
• Last year, Norwegian stopped using single-use plastic straws.
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Norwegian Cruise Line announced on Wednesday that it's banning single-use plastic bottles next year. The cruise line will instead use paper water bottles from Just Goods.

"It is imperative that we take meaningful steps to preserve our oceans and the destinations we visit, Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Andy Stuart said in a press release.

Read more: Cruise ships are notorious for polluting the ocean, and Carnival and Royal Caribbean are some of the worst offenders

Norwegian said the move will replace over six million single-use plastic bottles each year. Just Goods' water bottles are made mostly from paper and plant-based plastic, and the company says its materials and production processes produce 74% fewer emissions that are harmful to the environment than a typical plastic water bottle.

Last year, Norwegian stopped using single-use plastic straws. The world's third-biggest cruise line, Norwegian operates 16 ships.

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Cruise lines have come under fire for their impact on the environment. Earlier this year, the environmental-advocacy group Friends of the Earth graded 16 cruise lines on how well they limit pollution from their ships. Norwegian Cruise Line received the second-best grade, a C-. Fourteen of the cruise lines received a grade of D+ or worse.

In June, Carnival Corp. was ordered to pay $20 million after Princess Cruises, a Carnival subsidiary, admitted to violating the terms of its probation from a 2017 conviction for improper waste disposal.

According to a court filing, Carnival released food waste and plastic into the ocean, failed to accurately record waste disposals, created false training records, and secretly examined ships to fix environmental-compliance issues before third-party inspections without reporting its findings to the inspectors.

Have you worked on a cruise ship? Do you have a story to share? Email this reporter at mmatousek@businessinsider.com.

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