Dive Brief:
- Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed HB 1085, a bill sponsored by Rep. Sharlett Mena and 15 other representatives aimed at reducing plastic pollution.
- Once in effect, the law will require that “lodging establishments” such as hotels cannot provide personal health or beauty products like shampoo in small plastic containers, plastic wrappers or other single-use plastic packaging.
- The Washington law — similar to legislation passed in California and New York in recent years — builds on sustainability practices already in place at large hotel chains such as Marriott International, which in 2019 committed to eliminating single-use shower toiletry bottles from its hotels.
Dive Insight:
Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, Washington lodging establishments — including but not limited to hotels, motels, resorts and short-term rentals — with 50 or more units will be prohibited from stocking guest rooms or public bathrooms with single-use plastic toiletry products. The law will go into effect for lodging establishments with fewer than 50 units the following year, though guests with “mobility or other accessibility challenges” will still be able to request such products at any size property.
The statewide legislation follows initiatives at individual large hotel chains designed to reduce reliance on single-use plastics.
In 2019, Marriott committed to replacing single-use toiletry bottles of shampoo, conditioner and bath gel in guest room showers with economy-size bottles. If fully implemented across the globe, Marriott’s toiletry program could prevent about 500 million single-use toiletry bottles, or roughly 1.7 million pounds of plastic, annually from going to landfills, according to the hotel company.
Hilton and Hyatt similarly have taken steps to transition from individual toiletries to full-size dispensers and have banned the use of plastic straws.
Other hotel organizations are taking action to reduce plastic waste, including Accor and Iberostar Group as part of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative. Signatories of the initiative have committed to move from single-use plastics to reusable alternatives, increase the amount of recycled content across all plastic packaging and invest to increase the recycling and composting rates for plastics by 2025.
