Kickstart: Aid for flood victims

Global plastics companies have been responding to help regions hit with catastrophic flooding in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as China earlier this month.

Twenty members of Klöckner Pentaplast Group's Montabauer fire department spent 48 hours in the Ahrweiler, Germany, region, rescuing people, pumping out cellars, removing mud and "simply lending an open ear for those affected," the company said in a social media post.

LyondellBasell Industries has donated 250,000 euros ($283,000) to the German Red Cross to help German communities hit by the flood. In addition, it said it will match each euro donated by its employees.

French materials company Solvay is adapting its Solvay Solidarity Fund — initially created to help with the response to COVID-19 — to provide financial aid and volunteer time to respond to flooding in both Europe and China.

It has been in contact with 200 employees in the impacted acreas and will provide up to 2 million euros ($2.3 million) in aid.

"We were shocked by the magnitude of the disaster and quickly mobilized to support colleagues and local communities that were affected," CEO Ilham Kadri said.

Barrel and screw maker Xaloy Holdings LLC says nearly all of its employees in Thailand are in the process of being vaccinated against COVID-19.

In a social media post, Xaloy was able to provide free Sinopharm vaccine doses to 198 employees along with their families. The first doses were administered in the last few days at Chularat Cholvej Hospital in Chonburi, and the Xaloy staff should be fully vaccinated by mid-August.

Like many other countries, Thailand has seen a spike in COVID cases and deaths since late spring. About 11 percent of Thailand's population has been fully vaccinated, according to Reuters.

As people resume travel plans, the United Nations Environment Programme is out with a report pointing to ways to reduce single-use plastics within tourism.

Travel and tourism is an $8.8 trillion global industry, UNEP says in the nearly 50-page report.

"Its role in job creation and lasting positive social impact is immense," the group notes in its introduction. "However, without a healthy and thriving environment, the sector and our planet cannot survive."

The report looks at research by UNEP and the World Travel & Tourism Council to better reduce single-use plastics that end up impacting the environment.

"Rethinking [single-use plastics] and eliminating their use cannot be done in isolation by one industry or one individual business," the reporter notes. "It requires every travel and tourism sector stakeholder, from consumer to decision makers, to make more informed choices and act."

Beyond single-use water bottles, the tourism industry can support more sustainable travel options with refillable bottles, shower caps made with biodegradable plastics and slippers tied with a ribbon rather than being placed into plastic bags.