US hotels may soon stop providing tiny bottles of toiletry

Picture for representation (Flickr)

The tiny bottles of toiletry, including the likes of shampoo, body wash, body lotion, etc, that hotels provide during stays, may soon not be given to guests anymore. Although it is a common practice for guests to walk out with the miniature bottles, that is not the reason why the practice is about to end.

The miniature bottles of toiletries would gradually be done away with the aim of reducing the environmental impact that plastic waste has, reported The New York Times.

Luxury hotel chain Marriott is also mulling over switching to wall-mounted, refillable liquid dispensers at 450 of their outlets. By January 2020, it hopes to introduce these in 1,500 of its outlets. InterContinental Hotels, another luxury chain, is also doing the same.

A bill in this effect has been passed in California’s legislature, and all hotel properties in the state may eventually have to do away with the plastic miniatures.

The sponsor of the bill, Ash Kalra, said: “The goal is to start to phase out single-use plastics in California in general. This is really low-hanging fruit because the industry is already moving in that direction.”

The cutesy bottles are, in fact, a menace when it comes to the growing global concern over plastic-waste disposal that has affected marine flora and fauna most adversely.

This is because the toiletries we leave behind while checking out of our hotel rooms usually end up in the trash.

Notably, non-profit organisation Clean the World has been collecting soap and bottled miniatures from hotels for almost a decade and turning them into fresh toiletry kits that they hand out to people who cannot afford to buy them.