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Plastic is everywhere in hotels.
Customers love getting a taste of luxury from mini-bars, shower gel, and laundry bags.
And when your clients are on the road, for business or pleasure, they’re much less likely to think about the destructiveness of using fossil fuels, the limitations of recycling, or of the pollution caused by producing packaging.
They probably won’t worry about how their hotel trip will contribute to the 90.5% of plastics that are never recycled. And perhaps won’t worry about how one more plastic bottle could add to the 50 trillion pieces of plastic that UNESCO estimates are now clogging up the ocean.
So if you’re trying to improve sustainability in your hotel, what do you do about it? In this article, we’ll show you how sustainability leaders in hospitality can start to make a difference.
We’ll start by laying out the problem: reminding you of all the little ways that hotels run on plastics. Then, we’ll give a few key suggestions for making it better: through refillable toiletries, better minibars, the overall model, messaging, and measuring impact.
As the Financial Times explained in 2021, the pressure for sustainable hotels comes from growing legislation, personal responsibility, and green financing. In this context, actions of every size can make a big difference - let’s find out how.
Throwaway culture is a problem across the tourism industry. In a hotel, just think of all the products that might be made of plastic - with a very short life span.
For hotel guests, that will include plastic toiletry bottles, plastic shower caps, plastic toothbrushes, plastic, laundry bags, plastic coffee pods - and if there’s finding facilities, you can add on disposable food containers and cutlery. And behind the scenes, staff use plastic bin bags and cleaning products in single-use packaging.
The good news? Simple strategies can lead to major reductions of single-use plastic in hotels.
For example, in a 2011 trial in Cyprus hotels to reduce plastic, each guest consumed 31% less plastic per visit (as explained in a 2021 UN report). Putting a few simple measures in place can dramatically change the environmental impact of a hotel.
Tiny little bottles of shampoo and shower gel are cute, convenient, and massively wasteful.
But there are now plenty of vendors who provide refillable toiletries to the hotel industry. It’s an easy change that can lead to major reductions in single-use plastic. In a 2019 project lead by Futouris on the Balearic islands, one hotel found that this simple change resulted in a 90% reduction in waste of single-use bottles. The same hotel reported major cost reductions, too.
Refillable toiletry dispensers won’t require a big mindset shift from customers. So even if they aren’t universal, yet, there’s nothing stopping them from becoming normal.
Is a minibar without single-use plastic possible?
Many minibar staples like Coke and Pepsi are made by the top-polluting plastic brands, according to Break Free From Plastic’s annual report. And while you could use recyclable choices for some soft drinks, reusable bottles for all minibar drinks are a long way off.
But one of the easiest plastics to get rid of is water bottles. You can stop offering fancy drinking water in plastic bottles (which customers will almost certainly throw away). Instead, provide each room with reusable aluminium bottles.
Altwater, for example, offers fantastic aluminium bottles that consumers can use over and over again. An Altwater bottle is at home in the most comfortable of hotel rooms - and offers peace of mind for the eco-conscious consumer.
It’s easy to say “get rid of plastic bottles!”.
But as we know too well, the biggest problem isn’t just materials. It’s the problem of single-use packaging. In a system where packaging is used over and over again, it takes a whole system of support to make it happen.
2021 advice from the Global Tourism Packaging Initiative gives one example. They point out that reusable bottles need to be supported by refilling facilities. So, installing convenient filtered water fountains is a way to complete the system. This may be expensive, but it shows a clear commitment to sustainable principles.
Sustainability in hotels is not just about managerial decisions. Customers have to be ready to do their bit too - and the company messaging is a key way to achieve this.
There’s plenty of common initiatives that prove messaging works. Plenty of hotels offer guidance about towel-washing and linen-changing. Not everyone wants to see their rooms made over every day, and faced with the choice, they are likely to do the right thing.
The same logic can be applied to all plastics - especially when you’re giving customers a choice to use reusables.
But there’s another point here. 2021 research in the Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism found that negative framing can reduce the use of bottled water.
Right now, maybe you’re asking customers to “do their bit for the environment”. How about an upgrade to “don’t create a climate apocalypse”?
So far, we’ve assumed that all hotels will all face similar changes. And it’s true that some solutions will work well across the sector.
To really make a difference, you’ve got to get precise information about single-use plastic. Can you answer simple questions about plastics, such as:
A corporate material flow analysis might bring up surprising results. You can use that to make the best decisions. After all, the aim of reducing single-use plastics is to make your organization more sustainable - not to have a flashy message to sell to customers.
It’s clear that there’s a lot of work to do.
But just remember: it can all start with something as simple as an aluminium water bottle from altwater.
An aluminium bottle from Altwater comes filled with mineral water from Cornwall - refreshing, delicious, and close to home. The bottle itself offers an elegant alternative to the plastic, glass, or cartons that you find in many hotels.
Unlike so many alternatives, it’s strong and durable, making it re-usable in and out of the hotel - going places where glass can't go! An altwater bottle is the perfect companion for exploring the city, and helping combat single-use plastic through wasteful bottled water. And after three uses, it’s carbon-neutral, helping you to meet ESG targets in waste reduction and sustainable consumption across the hotel - fighting the issue of single use plastic!
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Water bottles are just one part of the picture.
Today’s leaders in hospitality and tourism recognize that hotels cannot sit back and let other industries look after sustainability. Indeed, as Mark Tanzer explained in a 2020 report from the ABTA, the industry’s “future prosperity depends on putting sustainability at the heart of tourism’s recovery”.
Hotels can make a difference with small and large changes. Refillable toilteries, reusable water bottles, and messaging, are simple and cost-effective ways to reduce a hotel’s reliance on single-use plastics. When they are joined with effective models of delivery and accurate measurements, hotels can become active agents in environmental sustainability.
It’s easy to say “get rid of plastic bottles!”.
But as we know too well, the biggest problem isn’t just materials. It’s the problem of single-use packaging. In a system where packaging is used over and over again, it takes a whole system of support to make it happen.
2021 advice from the Global Tourism Packaging Initiative gives one example. They point out that reusable bottles need to be supported by refilling facilities. So, installing convenient filtered water fountains is a way to complete the system. This may be expensive, but it shows a clear commitment to sustainable principles.
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