subject: Hotel toiletries going green [print this page] Hotel toiletries going green Hotel toiletries going green
Hotel toiletries are fast becoming the latest way hotels can do their bit for the environment.
Earlier this year, The Independent reported that Spanish chain NH Hotels had started using biodegradable hotel toiletries and vending machine supplies in their hotel rooms.
As these containers will break down faster than other bottles and packs on the market, these environmentally friendly options will be welcomed by guests who want to do their bit for Mother Nature.
Known as Agua de Tierra' which means water of the earth', the hotel toiletries are made up from an ingredient known as polyolefin which will encourage the product to break down faster than a similar product without the added catalyst element.
The result is that it will only take between two and seven years for the product to break down rather than the usual one hundred to a thousand years, making them kinder to the planet.
Although many people may think that having no toiletries or vending machine supplies at all would be better than simply replacing them with greener' options, for a lot of hotel chains, not having these products would be like getting rid of some of their brand identity.
As NH Hotels has almost 400 hotels in Europe with some 60,000 rooms, guests still expect to see the kits when staying in one of the hotels as it identifies the hotel from other rooms they may have stayed in before.
Other hotel chains have been quick to get on the green' bandwagon by offering soaps and shampoos in dispensers rather than in bottles. Likewise, a hotel in Chicago has come up with a creative solution by giving guests doughnut shaped soaps. There is also an initiative known as The Global Soap Project which redistributes almost three million bars of sanitised soaps to refugee camps in Africa after being discarded in American hotels.
