It’s not every day you’d expect to find an organisation’s CEO and President standing outside a waste sorting and disposal area in awe. But this is what happened when one simple HESS Bright Idea came to life.
For many years Carnival UK and our parent company Carnival Corporation have been pioneers in waste sorting and disposal on board; with committed waste operative colleagues and specialist technology to sort, compress and safely dispose of waste.
These operations used to take place in the rather unglamorously named ‘Garbage Room’. But, when in August 2018, our P&O Cruises colleague Tim Newman, Hotel Operations and Retail Manager on board Oceana, had the HESS Bright Idea to rename these places ‘Recycling Centres’, heads were turned.
In fact heads didn’t just turn, they were nodding excitedly in agreement!
The HESS Committee – which reviews every HESS Bright Idea submitted – was so impressed with this suggestion that it was taken to colleagues in Miami. Carnival Corporation was equally impressed with Tim’s suggestion and it was readily agreed that the waste sorting and disposal area on board the 106 vessels will be renamed ‘Recycling Centre’.
Tim Newman (far right), opens the Recycling Centre on board Ventura with Josh Weinstein and Stein Kruse
To mark this occasion, colleagues arranged a Recycling Centre opening on board Ventura during a turnaround day in Southampton with Tim being the guest of honour to open it.
On a drizzly day on the 12 March, Stein Kruse, Josh Weinstein, Paul Ludlow, Donnacha O’Driscoll, Peter Hutchison and other guests joined Tim to commemoratively open the Recycling Centre on board Ventura.
Speaking at the opening, Josh said, “Today marks a milestone in our HESS compliance to commitment culture shift as we rename our waste sorting and disposal area, ‘Recycling Centre’ on board Ventura. Not just a milestone for Ventura, or P&O Cruises or Carnival UK—but for all nine brands, 106 ships and 120,000 employees across the Corporation. We are immensely proud that this HESS Bright Idea came from our own P&O Cruises colleague, thank you.
“The Recycling Centre on board Ventura, as you can see, is immaculate. Somewhere you’d expect to eat your dinner let alone a place where you’d recycle the napkins from it. Thank you Larry and your waste operative team. Not only have you made this Recycling Centre look amazing, but more important you’re helping to reinforce mindsets onboard that we all need to do our part to protect and preserve the environment.”
As he cut the ribbon to declare the Recycling Centre open, fresh from his flight from Dubai where he had just finished a four-month rotation, Tim said, “The original name, ‘Garbage Room’, sounded like these were dirty, smelly places where we threw everything away and, of course, nothing could be further from the truth.
“Using a HESS Bright Idea card I suggested that we should rename this area a ‘Recycling Centre’ as it better reflects what we do in these clean and efficient spaces. I was amazed when I heard that the new name was going to be adopted globally and changed on all 106 ships across Carnival Corporation, it really shows our continued commitment to HESS. Thank you to everyone who has been part of this initiative.”
So next time you think of a Recycling Centre, banish those thoughts of families flocking to the council dump to take their broken bicycles, glass bottles and newspapers and instead think of our Recycling Centres on board – a place of cleanliness, commitment, excitement and happiness.