NO MORE MINI BOTTLES

The War Against Waste in Hotel Bathrooms

- By Gauri Ghadge

The plastic symbol of luxury is dying, and what replaces it might just reshape the future of hospitality. There's a quiet revolution happening behind closed bathroom doors in hotels across the world. Once, they were symbols of thoughtful hospitality, rows of tiny bottles filled with lavender shampoo, citrus body wash, and mint-conditioner in miniature form.

Neatly lined up, untouched, unopened, collected by guests as keepsakes. But now? They're vanishing.

One by one, the mini bottles are being scrubbed out of existence.

What was once a hallmark of convenience is now a global embarrassment: an industry-wide reliance on single-use plastic, discarded daily by the millions. The hospitality sector, long romanticised for indulgent experiences, is finally facing an uncomfortable truth: those tiny bottles have left behind a giant environmental footprint.

And now, the war against waste has begun, starting at the bathroom sink.

THE PLASTIC PROBLEM HOTELS CAN'T IGNORE

For decades, the hospitality industry treated plastic toiletry bottles as a non-issue. Guests expected them. Housekeeping replaced them. No one asked why a single person needed three tiny bottles per night, or why half-used soaps had to be binned daily. But the numbers are sobering: hotels across the globe are responsible for hundreds of millions of discarded mini bottles annually, most of which end up in landfills or the ocean, too small and contaminated to be recycled.

These aren't just leftovers. They are plastic by design, manufactured to be used for three squeezes and then thrown away. A symbol of waste wrapped in a bow of hospitality.

And finally, regulators and the world have had enough.

CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK, AND THE GLOBAL RIPPLE