Like to take home those tiny hotel shampoos? Well, the end is near.
Like to take home those tiny hotel shampoos? Well, the end is near.
Huge chain to switch to full-size dispensers in move to end plastics pollution.
Like to take home those tiny hotel shampoos? Well, the end is near.
(A native of England, veteran journalist Matthew Diebel has worked at NBC News, Time, USA Today and News Corp., among other organizations. Having spent much of his childhood next to one of the world's fastest bodies of water, he is particularly interested in tidal energy.)
If you are like this scribe, you can’t leave those small hotel shampoos and conditioners behind. The waste! And they’re free! The result: A large shopping bag full of hair potions that gradually get used — and their plastic containers recycled.
Most people, however, leave the barely used items behind, meaning, for instance, that IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG), which owns Holiday Inn and other chains, throws away 850 tonnes of plastic in the U.S. alone, equivalent to the weight of five fully grown blue whales or 70 double-decker London buses, according to a press release.
Now, U.K.-based IHG, in partnership with a fellow Brit, consumer giant Unilever (UL), is doing something about it by using full-size dispensers containing Dove products in its 4,000 hotels, expanding on a program introduced in 2019 to move to bulk products.
The rollout across IHG's mainstream brands which account for around 80% of IHG's portfolio and includes Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Avid hotels, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites, follows the recent launch of larger-size bathroom amenities in its more upscale InterContinental Hotels & Resorts properties. IHG has pledged to eliminate single-use items throughout the stay of its guests by 2030.
Unilever, meanwhile, has set out a series of 2025 commitments, including a reduction of more than 100,000 tonnes in its use of virgin plastic, to collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells, and to ensure 100% of its plastic packaging is designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable. Unilever says it will also use 25% recycled plastic in its packaging by 2025, reports GreenBiz.com.
As for IHG, Yasmin Diamond, executive vice president for global corporate affairs, had her company’s customers in mind: "Our guests are increasingly mindful of the impact their travel choices have on the environment,” she said.
That, and miserly journalists watching their pennies.