Unilever To Replace InterContinental Hotels’ Wasteful Single-Use Toiletries

Arguably one of the best bits of the hotel stay is taking the complimentary soaps and lotions and stocking them up for use at home. However, each room comes with a mandatory shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and body soap, so that’s four bottles for every day of your stay. Multiply that against the hundreds of rooms in the thousands of hotels worldwide and the problem is evident.

In a move towards a more sustainable future, Unilever has partnered up with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) to remove single-use toiletries. In their stead will be full-size bottles that will be placed in the shower areas.

Unilever’s Dove will be the soap of choice for Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, and Candlewood Suites, where the initiative is first being launched.  

The switch to full-sized bottles will save 850 tonnes of plastic just in the Americas alone, according to IHG. It comes after a pledge was made by the hotel conglomerate in 2019 to completely remove all single-use toiletries from all of its hotels worldwide by 2030.  

Unilever is making similar goals as IHG towards sustainability and removing single-use plastic is another step in this direction.

Hotels use up a lot of energy to keep the buildings going and while getting rid of some toiletries may seem menial, every little bit counts towards a greener future.   

[via Global Cosmetics News and IHG, cover image via IHG]