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InterContinental ditching mini shampoos a PR stunt? Who cares

InterContinental ditching mini shampoos a PR stunt? Who cares

When groups like InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) start ditching mini toiletries there's a ripple effect - and it's not just the flat panic of hotel toiletries thieves

Like many of you, as my zero waste eco self is high fiving the recent decision of IHG to ditch 200 million miniatures from it's 843,000 guest rooms in 5,600 hotels along with plastic straws, my PR self is pretty sure its dressed up cost cutting. Following the Marriott group who announced in 2018 it was replacing miniature-sized plastic toiletries at 1,500 hotels in North America and just like Unilever, they have realised that being sustainable actually costs way less and anyway, guests are no longer prepared to pay for something they don't personally support - like plastic waste.


Who really cares if it's a cost cutting or PR stunt?

No sooner had IHG circulated their press release about dropping mini plastic bottles, then the sniping started. Quartz is just one example and they republished an article by Yossi Sheffi on The Conversation, declaring that we should hold our applause because "Removing mini-shampoos from hotel rooms won’t save the environment". The article goes on to point out that all this plastic banning hoo ha by hotels is really just "pandering to customer's false green preferences. And that IHG stand to save $11 million annually."

THE AUTHOR, YOSSI SHEFFI IS PROFESSOR OF ENGINEERING; DIRECTOR OF THE MIT CENTER FOR TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.  QUARTZ INITIAL SPONSORS WERE  BOEING, CHEVRON, CADILLAC, AND CREDIT SUISSE.  THE CONVERSATION HAS A POLICY REQUIRING YOU TO BE AN ACADEMIC TO POST ARTICLES, BUT NO REQUIREMENT FOR RELEVANT ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS, EVEN WITH THE USE OF THE TITLE, PROFESSOR.

Whether these commentators are any more entitled to a public opinion than you or me, what is clear is that $11 million of plastic bottles is a crap load of plastic that will now never be made and there is nothing fake about the impact of all that. 


We need to see the matrix for systemic sensibility

So many of us see that our own world view is the critical way out of this mess, often rendering us pretty much blind to any other point of view. The fact of course is that we live in a system of trillions of moving parts, within which - every nation, every business, every academic, every single person, makes a difference.

WE NEED TO JUDGE MOTIVATION LESS AND IMPACT MORE. THE SYSTEMIC NATURE OF SOME OF THESE CORPORATE DECISIONS GO WAY BEYOND THE DECISIONS THEMSELVES. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THE MOTIVATION FOR HOTELS TO REDUCE SIGNIFICANT PLASTIC WASTE IS. AS LONG AS THEY DO IT.

Hotels have the power to influence millions - just like Queen Elizabeth when she banned plastic at her palaces. Sure, she has way too many homes and a carbon foot print the size of an elephant, but she did ban single use plastic and she did use her capacity to influence millions and told them all about it. Just like each of us, Queenie was in turn influenced by her friends, in this case, David Attenborough who encouraged her to ban single use plastics (and hopefully offset all those palace emissions).

In terms of systemic impact, on the flip side of all those people with 'false green preferences' (as described by Yossi Sheffi) is the plastics industry. Someone used to make those 200 million plastic bottles and decisions to stop using them put downward pressure on plastics manufacture and with it the profitability of the plastics supply chain... So if you think those businesses are going quietly....

Who influences who?

From hotels, to queens and the plastics industry, when you think about the knock on effects of decisions like these for a few minutes, you start to see the field of dominoes. Consumers are also legislators and while some are friends of the plastics industry and big oil, others are not. California state Assembly passed Bill 162 in May 2019 to ban these same small bottles, requiring hotels and rental properties to offer alternatives.

By far the biggest influencer, at a macro and micro level in the broader picture of more mindful travel, is Airbnb, who have had a huge impact on completely realigning what people see as important in accommodation or for that matter, as luxury, even for the rusted on hotel stayer.

In the case of the little plastic body care bottles, somehow they have become symbols of outdated thinking and a generally cheap product. The irony is that the provision of bulk body products brings hotels closer to the Airbnb model and gives them way more versatility with their product choices as it decouples them from a central supply commitment. And that shift affords the potential for using locals or even product placement at little or no charge. And with that comes whole new business models.

Don't be dis-empowered by commentators or friends telling  you any action is a waste of time

Every action we take, every choice we make creates a ripple effect. There is simply no reason to make a bad eco choice when there are better options around. Anyone who thinks that one little decision - like renting out an air mattress on the floor for a night - can't change the world, hasn't looked on Airbnb lately. 

A word on hotel soaps

Many hotels who use bar soaps are now part of groups like Soap Aid, who collect used soaps and collect, recycle and distribute critically needed soap to communities in need. 



Images: Unsplash Zalfa Imani | Marriot Hotel Group | Unsplash Alfie Smith
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