Just think about who spit (or worse) in those bottles ahead of you. I now bring my own in case the hotel cannot provide single use. In fact a call ahead and book only in hotels that provide disposable unless their is no other option.
Hi to everyone from the UK, we are suppliers of boutique hotels and restaurants here in the United Kingdom and we have started to save hotels and restaurants lots of money. As we all know each guest pops those little shampoo bottles into their bags regardless of them actually needing them and many reside in the cupboard at home never to be used again. We provide 250ml/500ml bottles to the business and follow that up with a 5 litre refill that cuts costs and discourages guests from taking them home. Many of our businesses display pricing structure if taken it will simply be charged to their room. Our products are unique and are changing the cosmetics industry helping care for the end user and the planet. We are on a mission to change attitudes and mindsets. Airbnbs are now using us as the costs are rocking when each guest helps themselves.
I'm not sure about you, but it seems like I'll be stocking up on those hotel toiletries. Seems like a case of big brother to me, but I guess that's California being California. I love the little shampoos and shower gels. I usually get them for my Airbnb from wholesalerentalsupplies.com (I think that's the name).
I've been traveling with my own toiletries for years. This is a simple habit change. If you aren't selfish or greedy, it shouldn't be a difficult one.
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I've been taking mine to one of the local shelters (currently it's Mary's Place) for years. Never threw any of them out (horrors!).
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@vacciniumovatum Thank you. While I always traveled with my own supplies, and I agree this change is good, throwing away bags full of usable toiletries was a terrible waste. Women's shelters are often desperate for any personal hygiene products. What a shame.
Don't convince yourself otherwise. It is an example time after time to eliminate cost for a business. A customer at a hotel is primarily interested in the cleanliness of the room, and that includes hotel free toilet items. So, now when I book a hotel room that says these items are in refillable containers, you know exactly, no doubt, what I will tell them. On needle in the bag of a refillable container that results in a "medical condition" means I go for the separate toilet item. Which by the way, I seldom use anyway. But America, why take the risk.
@Me Too Our products are only refilled by the hotel staff. Contamination can happen at any point with any bottle size??
@Gavin Taylor (NO ORDINARY) true but hotel staff “contaminating” the little bottles would be less likely and easier to redress if it happened. Who knows who had access to open the bottles when any guest before you has access. It is truly disgusting and I now call ahead and only stay at hotels that do not do this or bring my own if not an option. Just wait for the tic tic challenges to begin and the lawsuits to start. @Me too is correct, for me sanitized rooms are top concern.
Many hotels have cards announcing their efforts to protect the environment by doing less laundry and giving guests the choice to reuse sheets and towels. Yet they still provide the small bottles of toiletries. Biodegradable packing is now available if refillable dispensers are not adopted.
I believe we should look at this from the prospective of hygine. These refillable dispensers can manifest bacteria and disease from previous patrons. Not to mention the idea that it may not be actually cleaned other than maybe a hotel policy once a week or once a month cleaning to ensure mildew and mold do not start forming.
Ask yourself these questions, would you use a reusable dispenser in your own home? At a persons home you do not know well? Ifnyoubgot sick from using one would you try and blame the hotel for improper sanitation of such devices?
This move is the easy way out of a larger problem. A problem that can be solved by determinning a way to reuse plastic, or in any case actual elimination of wast. Banning plastic will lead to the use of more paper products, which can just as well end up in the oceans and within sea creatures. So what, ban one item and soon be left the use of nothing?
Soon the use of tampons or even condoms may be banned because the likelyhood of the condom being swallowed by turtles getting stuck in their airway and them suffocating.
More alternative routes would be to find a way to burn trash, in an environment that can control its emissions or finding ways to repurpose the waste being accumulated.
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@Kate
Every last day spa I've visited in recent years uses refillable pump dispensers, without incident. I fail to see the issue here--aside from humans refusing to change bad habits in favor of environmental stewardship of our planet.
This practice is already common across Europe (including luxury brands) and Japan. It's a behavioral change--nothing more.
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@Kate
We are re-using beds in hotels slept in by strangers! (I try not to think about this too much.) That has a higher ick factor than a reusable soap dispenser. At least the body wash and shampoo are likely to kill some germs on the dispenser. Don't know about the hair conditioner
I leave the cute toiletry products behind. I bring my own supplies in small reusable containers because the hotel stuff tends to be pretty low end.
I like the burning trash idea when it generates power cleanly.
You are free to bring your own toiletries. Just like you bring a toothbrush and toothpaste.
Why wait until 2023? These containers could be made out of glass and thus recyclable.....
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@Richard Glass presents its own challenges. First, it not as easy to recycle as one might think and the particular size of these containers would be tricky for recycling sorters/processors. From there it is significantly heavier than plastic containers of the same size, which increases the amount of energy it requires to ship to market and to transport to recycling facilities. And then consider what might happen if someone in their bare feet drops a small glass bottle on the hard tile floor of a hotel bathroom. It increases liability for the hotel, with insurance costs likely passed along to the consumer. Glass simply is not a viable solution.
I've been donating them to the local shelter for years. They are so happy to get them! I would never use dispensers in the rooms. We travel with our own shampoo, soap - more for the shelter!
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We have been encouraging donors to our food bank to collect these items when they travel and bring them to us. We put them up with other items in what we call hygiene bags and give them out to our homeless clients. They are much appreciated
@Betty Sullivan
And where do the empties go after the food bank recipients are done with them? Problem NOT solved.
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@Laura in NJ Spot on. I live in central California, and we have a large population of homeless folks here. I pick up trash on a 3-mile creekside trail I walk every day with my dog. This trail winds through a park where lots of homeless people sleep or just hang out because the shelters close during the day. I pick up so many of those little shampoo/conditioner bottles every week. Also toothbrushes, razors, and wet wipes. So, yeah, the altruistic argument of "we give them to the needy" doesn't solve the problem of those containers eventually ending up in rivers, oceans, and landfills. It doesn't matter who uses them or for what purpose…it's still plastic. I've stayed in hotels where they've used paper/wax packaging, where they've provided little solid blocks of shampoo and/or conditioner that only need water to dissolve, or where dispensers are hung in the showers. There are so many better options. I'm perplexed at how resistant people are to change, even with the planet in the state it's in now. Such gross entitlement.
I’m wondering why no one has brought up the question about why those bottles are in the hotel rooms to begin with.
Who pays for them?
Manufacturers who’s advertising dollars are spent on the hotel-size bottles? Probably.
There’s a reason those little bottles have been a part of the hotel experience for decades. That must be a fact, seeing that the hotels know very well that people take more than they need and have been doing so for a very long time.
This seems to be working well for the manufacturers, the hotels, the guests, and the people to whom they are donated.
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The toiletries are in the hotels for you to use, not to take. Is it really a "donation" to take stuff you never plan to use and then give it away after it's been sitting around for a few years? I'm not sure I would describe giving those little bottles to a shelter as a generous act.
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Weather excuse for the hotels to save money by claiming they’re doing something for the environment
I work at a small public library where we provide "self-care" kits for our homeless patrons. People (who typically travel) in our community donate those little bottles (along with sanitary pads and other toiletries) you describe. Until these bottles are phased out, I'm suggesting to readers that they seek out libraries, food pantries, and shelters that use the contents of these bottles to great effect.
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I'm fine with this as long as they don't mount the bottles too high for all 5'0" of me to reach in the shower!
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I still fear tampering with the wall mounted dispensers. I have heard, through a hotel housekeeper, that they are sometimes contaminated with body fluids. Double yuck.
I would recommend sturdy, visible anti-tampering, or dry leaves of shampoo/soap, like Lush or Ethique make. Or, we could travel with our own dang shampoo, just as if we were grown-ups.
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@blainejennifer
If you are worried about tampering bring your own stuff.
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This is a perfect example of liberal overreach. Liberals won’t be happy until they control every minuscule aspect of everyone else’s lives.
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@American Because going after single-use plastics is a lot more controlling than neoconservative attempts to control women's bodies?
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@American
This is the hill you want to die on, souvenir bottles?
Okay, I'll make you a deal. YOU guys give up on fighting abortion and allow local municipalities to set their own minimum wage higher than the state one if they like and WE will drop the soap issue.
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@American..... What total nonsense. What exactly is "liberal overreach"? Do you even know what the Liberal or Progressive platforms stand for? Please get informed "American" somewhere in America and start making educated choices based on facts not propaganda. We all need to have serious discussions and it would help a lot if you were informed and up to speed so you can participate in the discussions we must have.
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This is so wrong. Hostels, dormitories and motels use the communal soap dispenser. Exclusive hotels must hold themselves to a higher standard. *Resist*
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Some European hotel chains have been using shampoo dispenser bottles for more than 10 years.
Long overdue in U.S. hotels.
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Most European hotels I've been in already have the dispensers at the sink & in the shower - works great.
Shame on those folks for throwing out the bottles they did not want. They could have given them to any homeless shelter or even food pantry for their clients.
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The Golden Arrow in Lake Placid has used environmentally friendly packaging for years. It is called “BeeKind” and is in paper recyclable packaging.
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We always save toiletries and use them at home or bring them on the next trip if we know none will be provided.
The little soaps in particular are wonderful. We have a handsome dish on the bathroom sink, and in it are three miniature soaps -- rather festive. They do not wear out three times as fast but last three times as long.
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I reuse them because I know they will pass muster getting through security at the airport. Speaking of which - isn't the TSA also guilty to a degree of promoting these single-use bottles – they only allow a 3.4oz bottle. Does California have any plan for LAX?
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@Wilson1ny
You can actually purchase reusable travel bottles to fill with your own toiletries. I prefer this, because I can never find small sizes of the brands I like.
We use refillable silicone tubes that are allowed by the Airlines. They have suction cups attached so they go directly on the wall of the shower, we fill them with the brands and types of products that we like to have with us, including some that the hotels don't provide, and have had no problems since we bought them years ago.
A social worker should have known to donate them to a shelter. I can’t believe she threw them out!
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I am equally appalled! I take mine to Faith Mission every few months.
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Why don't they ban three meals a day? If we cut out dinner for everyone, there will be less emissions and fewer starving people.
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@No this seems like a step in the right direction regarding the waste we humans continue to create. These tiny bottles are a luxury and food is not.
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What happened to bar soap wrapped in paper? I think they are easier on the skin than liquid soap. Maybe the manufacturing process/additives to get soap liquid is too harsh?
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Personally, I've never encountered a hotel soap that I prefer over the brand I use at home, so I carry my own soap in a travel case made for the purpose. We also carry liquids in refillable silicone tubes that are airline friendly.
While traveling in Europe way back on 2007, most of the hotels I stayed in used refillable bottles of a low surfactant combination shampoo and body wash. It worked fine.
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@Michelle. That’s because you were staying in cheap hotels.
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@Michelle Those combo shampoo/body wash formulations are usually junky. But there's no reason refillable bottles can't be full of high-quality separate products in high-end places and probably the same junk I'm used to at the cheap places I tend to stay.
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I disagree. This practice is increasingly common in higher-end accommodation in both Europe and the Americas, in my experience. I personally appreciate it.
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California proud! I hope this passes as other states tend to follow our lead.
Next, we could consider banning plastic bottles for products that have less harmful alternatives. Laundry detergent powder is effective, as is dishwasher soap. I never understood the idea of "green" laundry products in single-use plastic bottles. Cartons of milk or orange juice work beautifully, and consumers are spared the guilt of tossing huge plastic bottles into landfill, or recycling bins. Once plastic is manufactured, it's still plastic, even if it's fleece or carpeting. Eventually it will be land fill. Water tastes like plastic in plastic bottles. I hope it's not too late to make a dent in the damage we've caused to our oceans.
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@Roberto
Those cartons of milk and orange juice are still coated with plastic, which makes both the plastic and paper component a lot harder to recycle.
We have stayed at the very nice Marc Spencer on several trips to Portland, Oregon over the last few years, and I was very pleased to use the soap and hair product dispensers mounted in this hotel's bathrooms. Not only does if feel less wasteful, but those little bottles are awkward to use.
And yes, I know this seems like such a minuscule issue, but all of these tiny bottles add up to a mass of unused plastic, and every small solution makes a dent in a big problem.
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High time. Buying staples in bulk and using refillable containers is the way to go. If you can’t get it that way, make it yourself or do without. Zero waste. For the sake of the planet and our own health, we need to stop worshipping at the altar of convenience.
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I take the bottles, refill them at home, and carry them with me in my suitcase for future use.
Plus I can trust the quality of the shampoo and lotions I pack - unlike some of the very low end product typically found in hotels.
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For Pete's sake. With soft drink manufactures and water purveyors selling millions of plastic bottles, when are the authorities going to focus on the real problem: plastic drink bottles. Instead, everyone worries about plastic forks, coffee pods and shampoo containers. Time to get serious folks!
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@onlyamonk
So give up on everything else until the plastic bottles are banned? How well is that going to work?
Seriously, though, the more thought people put into giving up single-use containers or objects in everyday use, the more likely they are to start paying attention to and reducing their use of plastic drink bottles as well.
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I've had the privilege of recently staying at an ultra high-end resort outside of the US. It used refillable, ceramic bottles for shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. It was awesome, worked seamlessly, and no plastic was involved.
This is something we could incorporate into our lives at home, too. I already take my propane tank to be refilled, why not bottles of shampoo, makeup, and cleaning supplies? The price of the goods would also, likely, drop, as manufacturers don't have to purchase bottles/packaging. Win-win.
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About time! I hope this catches on worldwide. I wish there was a filter on hotel booking websites that would let you select hotels that have implemented this type of environmentally friendly policy.
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If hotels and inns decide to use a mounted or other dispenser system it should be tamper-evident at least and tamper-proof ideally.
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@Mark
Are you afraid someone (who?) will add a poison that will instantly kill you? You've been watching too much Killing Eve! The one-use bottles are not sealed - you'd never know if they'd been tampered with.
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@Mark - Don't trust the hotel products? Just bring your own from home.
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You're too young, I reckon, to remember what people did in supermarkets before tamper-proof wrapping was added.
Ever see someone unscrew a mayonnaise jar, stick a finger in, and taste the mayonnaise? I have.
Why do you think tamper-proof wrapping came to be?
You'd be surprised how people behave.
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This is a start, and NY dealing (finally) with plastic bags is a start, but it’s not near.y enough. what we need to do is change he paradigm and require companies that produce these single use items, such plastic wrap, single serve plastic beverages, take out food containers, chip bags these cheap little plastic toys and ephemera, and similar items to take responsibility for what they product. Require that manufacturers of items such as these, and the companies that reply on them, have robust and scientifically defensible plans in place to deal with the detritus that these products produce. And by that I mean a method to reclaim the used materials and deal with them in a sustainable manner that does not leave them as a toxic blemish on the planet. Absent a method for doing that, they will be forced to come up with other packaging that is environmentally sound. It is unfair for the onus for dealing with the waste these produce to fall on consumers and municipalities. Further, they should have to contribute massively to any clean-up measures.
Less than14% of stuff actually gets recycled, and most plastic is recycled into something very low grade and of limited use. Nine million metric tons of plastic makes its way from land into the oceans and waterways every year, and more from cargo ships and commercial fisheries.
Manufacturers must take responsibility for this and for funding any clean-up operations. If they are forced to do so, things will change quickly,
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I agree with all this but would add: what about all the cardboard and packing materials in all those Amazon boxes? Cities taxing plastic bags is great, but look at the curbs now.
No one goes to the store now, gas is wasted & tons of packing materials fill the trash because much of it is not recyclable. All the delivery containers of food from DoorDash, Blue Apron, and instacart. Gas wasted, traffic has doubled from the Ubers and delivery drivers, all this convenience is causing much greater problems than the hotel shampoo bottles. Look at the big picture!
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@Dog walker
You have to start somewhere.
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@Dog walker. I agree, though it is all part of the same picture. And every little nibble has impact, and help to adjust mindsets.
Though I didn’t specifically mention cardboard packaging , I include it among packaging in general. Paper and cardboard manufacturing doesntakemamtoll on the environment and recycling of these materials isn’t great either. Nor is the resulting product well used. Companies need to have a sustainable plan for the debris their products product, and for their corporate hit on the environment.
As for Ubers, cabs, livery services and delivery vehicles in cities, perhaps it is time to switch them all to electric. Or at least put in a plan to require that by a certain date.
Is there nothing too inconsequential that a headline seeking politician can't turn into a bill?
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@Diogenes why do you say that pollution from plastics is “too inconsequential?” It’s destroying the planet and every step to stop this is a step in the right direction for all life on Earth. Including yours.
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@Baxter. No it’s not destroying the planet. This is the type of hyperbole that gives environmentalists a bad name. It’s a problem and should be addressed in a level headed manner. It is not destroying the planet.
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@Baxter. Destroying how? By going to a landfill? Come on.
I find this ban to be a great idea because even if unused or partially used bottles are repurposed, the plastic still has to be manufactured and then disposed of. Many if not most travelers bring their own toiletries, and hotel-provided shampoos and lotions are useful for emergencies or fun to collect, but the benefits of using and discarding less plastic trump these purposes. And there will still be the wall-mounted dispensers. I hope more states adopt this ban.
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In many countries such as Japan they fix containers to the wall in the shower area for shampoo and conditioner and body wash. The consumption is less since no one nicks it and guests are free to use how much they want during their stay.
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This is a perfect example of why government is needed. Because they've known for years these packages are awful and have they stopped, no! Those of us who travel with re-fillable bottles know this. It's long over due. Just too bad more companies don't get with the program of saving the earth and us.
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We traveled in Northern Europe last summer, staying in one-off hotels (not chains) except for one night. All of the hotels had wall-mounted soap & shampoo dispensers, except the one chain hotel (a Westin). It was refreshing and encouraging that there were no individually bottled amenities (but for the one chain hotel).
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This is a good step and one that all hotels should just do on their own, without government intervention. I’ve taken my own toiletries for years, even in these “3 ounces or less” days. I was interested in these two paragraphs from the article:
“Some donate extras to homeless shelters or other organizations helping people in need. Terranea Resort, a 102-acre resort that employs a sustainability leader in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., donates “partially consumed, wholly usable” toiletries left in guest rooms to the Midnight Mission in Los Angeles.
“In one month alone, this can amount to over 380 pounds of toiletries diverted from the landfill and sent to those in need,” the hotel says.”
That’s not “diverting” anything from a landfill. While admirable (and something I did with my collections of hotel soaps before I started taking my own) it’s an intermediate step that may ensure the bottles arrive at the landfill empty, but they are still getting tossed in the trash at the shelters, I’d assume.
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@Mark H, they meant diverting the liquids and soap from the landfill. Obviously the contain will end up there.
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