Hotels gear up to remove plastic usage

NEW DELHI: A couple of years ago, ITC Hotels conducted a study to map the plastic items in use across hotels. While they had already done away with use of single use plastic bottles, even then to their surprise, the final list was about 350 plastic items that are used in any hotel. Out of this, 150 items were single use plastic items. A large number out of that was ‘front of the house’ or visible and used by guests.


The chain realised that the usage of plastic went way beyond just water bottles and it needed to be tackled as a wholesome exercise than merely stating they have done away with plastic straws and bottles.

From coming up with wooden stirrers, cutlery and combs paper cups, bamboo toothbrushes and cotton buds, silicone shower caps, steel and paper lids for beverages, paper wraps for flowers, compostable garbage bags, glass bottles and wood and steel hangars and clips, chains such as ITC are ensuring steps that completely do away with any plastic in the guest area by October 2, and do away with almost 160 plastic items by December.

With PM Modi urging people to do away with single use plastic items by 2022, hotel chains are also on an overdrive to do away with such usage. Intercontinental Hotels Group has opted for bulk size amenities rather than miniatures, removed plastic straws from all properties and offers bathroom products in refillable ceramic dispensers in select luxury resorts. Accor requests their guests to opt for RO water stations at their functions than plastic bottles, provide glass bottles in room, use sustainable and biodegradable food packaging and offer bagasse takeaway boxes than plastic or Styrofoam packaging across its hotels such as Pullman, Novotel and Ibis.

At Shangri-La’s - Eros Hotel, New Delhi, plastic straws have been replaced with biodegradable paper straws. Taking this initiative one step ahead, the hotel got rid of plastic stirrers and only bamboo stirrers are being used at the hotel. The bamboo reusable take away cutlery has replaced single use take away plastic cutlery. Lemon Tree Hotels has paper straws and cups, cork coasters and pencils rather than plastic pens across guest area of the hotel.

The Taj Group participated in a ‘plastic elimination challenge’ where hotels in the group competed with each other in giving up plastic usage through innovative solutions that would help replace plastic. The result: Thirty of its luxury hotels have replaced plastic wrapped dry amenities in their rooms, such as toothbrush, shaving kit etc., with eco-friendly substitutes.

“Our hotels are moving away from single-use plastic and adopting biodegradable products. We are ensuring usage of glass bottles and 100% recyclable pens in meetings and events spaces, and are replacing plastic with eco-friendly substitutes such as laundry and garbage bags,” explained Zubin Saxena, MD & VP (operations), Radisson Hotel Group, South Asia.

“Bathroom kits, razor, toothbrush, shirt hangers, shower caps, cotton buds, cutlery, sachets drink stirrer, lids on disposable glass, waste bags to flowers being wrapped, plastic was extensively being used. We decided to phase all of it out and become a plastic free chain,” said H C Vinayaka, VP sustainability, ITC Hotels. Lack of quality alternatives to plastic and availability on a mass scale that hotels need is still a concern for many.

Apart from working with alternatives to reduce single use plastic water bottles, most hotels such as ITC, Taj and J W Marriott New Delhi Aerocity are also investing in water treatment and bottling plants at their premises to do away with plastic bottles from room and restaurants. J W Marriott's assessment was that approximately 17 lakh plastic bottles were used at Aerocity premises alone.