Marriott eliminates small bottles of shampoo by 2020

Marriott International, the world's largest hotel chain, announced on Wednesday that it would eliminate the small plastic bottles containing shampoo, conditioner and bath gel from its worldwide hotel d & rsquo; By December 2020. They will be replaced by larger bottles or wall-mounted dispensers, depending on the case. hotel.

This decision follows a similar announcement made last month by IHG, which owns the Holiday Inn, Kimpton and other brands. IHG announced that it would eliminate approximately 200 million small bottles each year by 2021. Last year, Walt Disney Co. announced its intention to replace small bottles of plastic shampoo in its seaside resorts and its cruise ships. Many small businesses, such as the five Soneva complexes in Thailand and the Maldives, have also abandoned plastic bottles.

Marriott has more than 7,000 hotels in 131 countries and 30 brands, ranging from SpringHill and Residence Inn Suites to Sheraton and Ritz-Carlton. He says it will eliminate about 500 million small bottles each year, or 1.7 million pounds of plastic.

For years, Marriott wants to get rid of small bottles, said President and CEO Arne Sorenson. They are too numerous, he said, and they are difficult to recycle because of the time needed to clean them.

But the design of large tamper-proof bottles and the participation of suppliers required a lot of work. High-end hotels, in particular, need always luxurious bottles, he said.

"There were a lot of technical features to it that we had to do well," he said.

Rival Hyatt Hotels Corp. is currently following a similar process. The company claims to have tested toiletry dispensers in some rooms over the last year.

The Marriott, based in Bethesda, Maryland, began replacing small bottles earlier this year at some North American brands, including the Courtyard and Fairfield hotels. About 1,000 of them now have larger bottles or pump dispensers hanging on the shower wall.

Denise Naguib, Vice President of Sustainability and Supplier Diversity at Marriott, said the survey generated a positive response from Marriott. Many were relieved because large bottles allowed them to use as much or as little shampoo as they wished.

"More and more people are aware of it," she said. "They do not want to leave bottles half empty."

According to Naguib, most Marriott hotels will eliminate small bottles by July 1, 2020. Luxury brands will dispose of them by the end of 2020. The cheaper brands will have distributors or distributors. bottles attached to the wall of the shower. Luxury brands will have unattached bottles. The bottles contain the equivalent of 10 to 12 small bottles and are tamper-proof.

The larger bottles will always be plastic and Marriott is still considering replacing them – not just filling them – when they are low. But Naguib said the bigger bottles are easier to recycle than the smaller ones.

Environmental groups applaud the movements.

"Plastic pollution is an urgent global crisis and the time has come to think" reusable "instead of" disposable, "said Dianna Cohen, co-founder and CEO of the Berkeley, California-based Plastic Pollution Coalition.

Soon, hotels may not have the choice. California lawmakers plan to ban hotels from using small bottles of shampoo in 2023, while the EU is banning a wide range of single-use plastic items, such as cutlery and plates, from here. 2021.

Sorenson said he expected some complaints, such as the one that Marriott experienced last year when it banned plastic agitators. Many people like to collect bottles of hotel shampoo, he said. Her own mother had a drawer full of soap that she had taken to hotels.

"Human nature is what it is and we resist change," he said. "But people understand that it's so much better."