REMOVE – REDUCE – RECYCLE
A good principle to help you to manage your consumption of single-use plastic products is the three R-principle as it helps you prioritize your actions in terms of plastic waste reduction.
When planning to reduce or eliminate single-use plastic products from your hotel operations focus as much as possible on the removal of products before investigating replacement options:
REMOVE
Items that are not necessary and can be eliminated entirely (e.g. straws or plastic cups).
By doing so you reduce your plastic consumption and waste significantly. It also helps you to save costs (for products and disposal).
REPLACE / REUSE
Single-use items produce a lot of (unnecessary) waste. Replace them with
- processes instead of products, e.g. providing handwashing or sanitizer stations instead of giving miniature sanitizer bottles to guests.
- reusable products or reusable packaging systems, e.g. providing reusable water bottles instead of single-use bottles and set up a system to collect and sort the products to be reused.
- with materials that can break down and safely decay in nature (e.g. bagasse).
RECYCLE
Or responsibly dispose of all remaining plastic waste products that can’t be eliminated or replaced with services / reusable alternatives.
However, this should be your last option, but recycling waste means it is used as a resource and contributes to save natural resources.
