For some time, there has been an environmentally-friendly trend within the hospitality industry that has seen businesses such as hotels and restaurants starting to move away from offering their patrons plastic straws.

Consumers, who increasingly expect the businesses that they patronize to act out of concern for the environment, have become acutely aware of how much waste single use disposable plastic straws generate each year when they are extrapolated out over the millions of people who use them each day. In response, they are beginning to prefer hotels, restaurants and bars that nix the use of the straws within their establishments.

Examples of reduced straw use within the hotel industry

While there are an increasing number of major hotel companies working to reduce the number of single use disposable plastic straws they grow to, some examples jump right to mind, including Hyatt Hotels Corporation, which has recently announced that Hyatt hotels around the world are planning to start to eliminate the single use plastic straws.

Also in the crosshairs to help cut down on waste are plastic drink picks. Yes, after Sept. 1 of this year, straws and picks will be available to Hyatt customers by request only. The company will also be providing more environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic single use straws and drink picks where the opportunity presents itself to them.

Hyatt leadership had this to say: “At Hyatt, we care for people so they can be their best, and this care extends to our communities and to preserving resources for future generations. Eliminating plastic straws and drink picks builds on the environmental sustainability programs we have in place and further drives our global efforts to reduce environmental impact,” said Frank Lavey, senior vice president, global operations for Hyatt. “This is a meaningful step, and our commitment doesn’t stop with straws and drink picks. We will continue exploring viable alternatives everywhere we can.”

Reducing use of plastic water bottles

Meanwhile, many hotel operators are finding other ways to reduce plastic waste by starting to offer their guests alternatives to plastic water bottles as well.

At the Rose Garden Hotel Yangon in Myanmar, Go Green water stations are easily accessible in the hotel’s lobby, GM Alex Scheible said.

“From the beginning, during our hotel’s opening over three years back, we (decided) to reduce plastic wastage—not only avoiding plastic bottles, but also offering dispensers for bathroom (amenities) instead of individually packed (toiletries), using recyclable paper take-away containers as much as we can, and we banned drinking straws,” he said.

Reusable bottles made out of recycled aluminum are available to guests as well as meetings attendees. Scheible said the Go Green stations are also located in each meeting room and pre-function area at the Rose Garden.

“The idea is that (guests) take the bottles along on their trip and back home, refilling them, instead of buying PVC bottles,” he said. “Of course, we are not naive and are aware that aluminum production and recycling consumes a lot of energy with high CO2 emissions. Therefore, it makes sense only if the bottles are reused.”

Let’s take a look at a few projects currently underway by Hyatt Hotels Corporation: