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InterContinental Hotels 1 st global hotel company to join world drive to reduce plastic waste
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), one of the world’s leading hotel companies, became the first global hotel company to join the world drive to reduce plastic waste in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. The company plans to fully switch to bulk-size bathroom amenities in lieu of bathroom miniatures by 2021.
Keith Barr, CEO, IHG, commented: “It’s more important than ever that companies challenge themselves to operate responsibly – we know it’s what our guests, owners, colleagues, investors and suppliers rightly expect. Switching to larger-size amenities across more than 5,600 hotels around the world is a big step in the right direction and will allow us to significantly reduce our waste footprint and environmental impact as we make the change.”
“We’ve already made great strides in this area, with almost a third of our estate already adopting the change and we’re proud to lead our industry by making this a brand standard for every single IHG hotel. We’re passionate about sustainability and we’ll continue to explore ways to make a positive difference to the environment and our local communities.”
IHG currently has an average of 200 million bathroom miniatures in use across its entire hotel estate every year. As the new brand standard is adopted between now and 2021, the company expects to see a significant reduction in plastic waste. This commitment builds on IHG’s pledge to remove plastic straws from its hotels by the end of 2019, and a number of broader waste reduction initiatives already in place. IHG is commitment to working with cross-industry partners to build a more sustainable world.
Joe Murphy of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation said: “We welcome IHG’s action to reduce plastic waste through this new commitment. Achieving a circular economy will be a challenging journey, but by working together we can find solutions to design out waste, keep materials in use, and regenerate our environment.”
IHG is also due to ditch single-use plastic straws from its hotels globally by the end of 2019 under an initiative which it launched in October 2018. The new brand standard represents an average of 50 million straws removed from IHG’s hotel estate each year, enough to stretch all the way from New York to Tokyo.
Pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals, IHG hotels are sought getting duvets and pillows that are filled with 100% recycled materials. This equates to 150 plastic bottles per guest room diverted from landfill.
The world has been taking great strides to reduce plastic waste which kills about 100,000 marine mammals every year at the global level due to leakage of around 13 million tons of plastics into oceans every year.
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