by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 2:08 PM ET, Wed August 28, 2019
Marriott International is expanding its efforts to do away with environmentally harmful single-use plastics, announcing today that it will eliminate single-use toiletry bottles of shampoo, conditioner and bath gel in guestroom showers.
The smaller toiletries will be replaced with larger, pump-top bottles.
Thus far, the hotel industry giant has rolled out the larger bottles in about 1,000 locations across North America and anticipates that most of its hotels will make the transition by December 2020.
Once the program is fully in place, Marriott expects it will prevent about 500 million tiny bottles annually from going to landfills, which is about 1.7 million pounds of plastic or a 30 percent annual reduction from the company's current level of amenity plastic usage.
"This is our second global initiative aimed at reducing single-use plastics in just over a year, which underscores how important we believe it is to continuously find ways to reduce our hotels' environmental impact. It's a huge priority for us," said Arne Sorenson, president and chief executive officer of Marriott International. "Our guests are looking to us to make changes that will create a meaningful difference for the environment while not sacrificing the quality service and experience they expect from our hotels."
Already, more than 20 percent of Marriott International's more than 7,000 properties now offer larger-pump-topped bottles in guestroom showers, doing away with single-use bottles that often end up in landfills or perhaps even more problematically, in the ocean.
By some estimates, there are more than 150 million tons of plastics in the ocean at large. If business continues as usual, the ocean will contain one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish by 2025, and by 2050, the oceans may have more plastics than fish, by weight.
The plastics problem encompasses far more than just toiletry bottles, but also includes cutlery, plates, plastic bags, water bottles and more. Most plastics are not biodegradable and remain in the environment for hundreds of years, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which describes the problem as a global emergency.
Equally concerning, tiny pieces of micro-plastic are eaten by fish or other creatures and then end up in the seafood consumed by humans. It is thought the sea now contains some 51 trillion microplastic particles. Some plastic is toxic and can disrupt hormones crucial for a healthy existence.
Today's announcement from Marriott expands upon the company's 2018 initiative to switch single-use shower toiletry bottles to larger bottles with pump dispensers in five brands: Courtyard by Marriott, SpringHill Suites, Residence Inn, Fairfield by Marriott and TownePlace Suites.
In addition, four of Marriott International's brands - Aloft Hotels, Element by Westin, Four Points and Moxy Hotels - previously implemented the pump-dispenser toiletry concept, while a fifth - AC by Marriott - is on its way to making the change.
A typical large, pump-topped bottle contains the same amount of product as about 10 to 12 tiny, single-use bottles, according to the company.
Because tiny bottles are not usually recycled, they end up in the hotels' trash bins - generating refuse that will never truly decompose in landfills.
In addition to allowing guests to use as much of a product as they need, the larger bottles are also recyclable along with other basic containers, such as plastic soda bottles.
Marriott, which welcomes more than one million guests each night, first began replacing single-use toiletry bottles in the guest bathrooms of about 450 select-service hotels with larger toiletry bottles that contain more product in January 2018.
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