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The plastic pollution campaigning organisation, City to Sea, is celebrating the news that all hotels run by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) will remove mini toiletries from their rooms.
The move will see hotels chains such as Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels taking the small single-use plastic bottles out of its 843,000 rooms by 2021.
IHG currently has an average of 200 million bathroom miniatures in use across its entire hotel estate every year.
The news comes following the launch of City to Sea’s #PlasticFreeTravel campaign, which seeks to make plastic-free travel easier and cheaper for holiday. Part of the campaign involves working with hotels to encourage the use of refillable dispensers in bathrooms.
Plastic pollution from holidays is a major issue with an estimated 40% surge in marine litter entering the Mediterranean during the summer months.
Further research estimates that 980 tonnes of mini plastic shampoo bottles are being dumped by British holidaymakers abroad each year – that’s equivalent to 2.5 Boeing 747s.
‘The pressure is really mounting now for those hotels who still give out these tiny bottles of shampoo. We’ve been working with hotel chains like Premier Inn who already have dispensers in their bathrooms, Marriott Hotels announced last year they were getting rid of them, and now we have Holiday Inn on board too. Any hotels that still using single-use miniatures need to catch up and get behind our plastic-free travel campaign.’
NATALIE FEE
Founder of City to Sea
City to Sea founder Natalie Fee described the news as ‘fantastic’. ‘Holiday Inn has taken a huge step in reducing its plastic footprint’, she said, ‘and in doing so is sending a message to the hotel industry that removing single-use plastic toiletries is a good business move as well as a sound environmental one.’
‘Concern for the environment is at an all-time high’, Natalie continued, ‘with plastic pollution being top of the list – so they needed to take action to keep customers happy.’
Click here to read our article about why sales of bottled water continue to grow.
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