Every one of us on this planet has a responsibility to reduce the damage they are causing to the environment. The larger the company or industry, the more waste and damage to society. The hospitality industry is a major contributor to plastic and food waste globally. Hotels have already and are still looking for ways to minimize their waste. Technological advancements are greatly helping in this regard. Let’s look at some ways the hospitality industry can go green.
Preventing Plastic Waste
The hotel industry is introducing various ways to manage plastic waste. Many important hotel chains have banned single-use plastics like toothbrushes, plastic cups, and glasses. Plastic hotel key cards are also being replaced. The Rotana chain of hotels has already proclaimed that it will remove all single-use plastic toiletries from its rooms. This step will save around 17 million plastic bottles and, as such, 100 tons of plastic yearly.
They are one of the few chains of hotels focused on reducing waste in all areas of their hotel operations and are committed to reducing harm and damage to the environment. Always looking for healthy and sustainable solutions with the help of advanced technology, they aim to increase their efforts to combat plastic pollution.
Other world’s most sustainable hotels are looking for alternatives to plastic and working towards achieving zero-plastic accommodations for their guests. The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative has 61 leading hospitality organizations that have come up with a framework to eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic products by 2025 with other reusable items.
The single-use laundry bag in hotels will be replaced with reusable linen or cotton bags. The Marriott and the Hyatt Hotels have stated that all single-use items in their hotel toilets will be completely removed.
Another major item being removed is the plastic pen, which more often than not ends up in landfills and in waterways. In the US alone, an estimated 1.6 billion pens are thrown away every year.
Preventing Food Waste
Food waste in America is the most compared to any other country in the world. 80 billion pounds of food is wasted every year. It is an ongoing struggle for the hospitality businesses, which are trying their utmost to manage food waste.
The leading causes of food waste are overproduction and leftovers. Buffet lunches and dinners are other examples of wastage of food as people fill their plates with more than they can eat and leave more on their plates to be thrown away subsequently.
Hotels and restaurants can use online databases and automatic temperatures to monitor their food stock. They can limit the number of items on their menus, which will reduce food waste, and the hotel industry can contribute and play its part in ensuring as little food as possible is wasted.
Final Thoughts
It is time to wake up and save the world by preventing all kinds of waste from adversely affecting our environment. Large populations of the world are facing food shortages and starvation.
It is our responsibility to feed those who are hungry, and we can only do that if we stop wasting food. The hospitality businesses must go forward and train their employees and staff to better their efficiency in terms of the five Rs – refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot. Businesses must create awareness through different mediums as to how they are working to prevent plastic and food waste and how others can help do the same. Governments and other organizations can encourage and offer them support in their endeavors.
