Many businesses are finding new ways to eliminate waste and be more eco-friendly. This is also true for hotels and other travel brands. Recently, Marriott Internationally announced its plans to expand its initiative of reducing waste by eliminating single-use toiletries. Since it’s one of the largest hotel brands in the world, this should make a noticeable impact.
It seems almost all hotels provide single-use toiletries to guests. It’s come to be expected and is the norm to have multiple toiletry bottles provided when you check into your hotel room — but think about how much extra waste this creates! Marriott hopes to make an impact by switching up their practices and encouraging guests to use larger bottles of toiletries when staying at their properties.
To date, Marriott has already begun to make changes. Approximately 1,000 properties in North America no longer provide single-use toiletries and about 20% of its international properties no longer offer single-use toiletries to guests. Marriot hopes to continue to expand their efforts and eliminate single-use toiletries at most of their properties by December 2020.
What will they offer instead of single-use bottles? Large bottles with pumps will be placed in guest showers to make for a lot less waste. A big pump-top bottle can fit the same amount of liquid as 10-12 single-use size bottles. That results in a lot less wasted plastic. Once the change is made throughout all Marriott properties, the brand expects to eliminate 500 million bottles from heading to landfills each year.
While it may take time for travelers to adjust to this change, it seems like an easy way for hotels to make a significant impact. As for the hotels that do still provide single-use toiletries, you can always donate your extra to a nearby homeless shelter.
