Radisson Hotel Group this week became the latest hospitality company to announce a plastic reduction plan, which includes the introduction of bulk amenities in all hotels across the group’s portfolio by 2022. This action is expected to remove 57 million miniature amenities from circulation, avoiding the use of almost 500 tons of plastic annually.
In addition, Radisson Hotel Group has made a global commitment no longer use plastic straws and plastic stirrers in its hotels by 2021, instead offering eco-friendly alternatives to guests upon request, as part of the #RefuseTheStraw campaign.
“Plastic pollution is one of the current major global issues and our group is proud to play a leading role in driving plastic reduction across the travel and tourism industry,” Federico J. González Tejera, president and CEO, Radisson Hospitality AB and chairman, Global Steering Committee, Radisson Hotel Group, said. “We are a signatory to the International Tourism Plastic Pledge—further demonstrating our commitment to sustainability and responsible business, in line with the targets laid out in our five-year strategic plan. Responsible business is a key element in our approach to growth and is vital to our ambition to become one of the leading hotel companies in the world.”
The group is also running a series of pilot projects in various locations, with the aim of finding new ways to drive plastic reduction globally. These include:
- In all the group’s properties in India, a roll-out of Commercial Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration systems to provide in-house bottled water and avoid the use of PET water bottles. In Bangladesh, Radisson Blu Chattogram Bay View is piloting a similar installation and is replacing PET water bottles by in-house filtered and bottled quality water.
- A first in Africa, making the Radisson Blu Hotel, Abidjan Airport in Ivory Coast plastic neutral. The hotel is currently offsetting its footprint of PET water bottles together with social enterprise Coliba. Through Coliba’s community collection system for plastics, Radisson Blu ensures that its PET bottles are recycled correctly and the same number of PET bottles as used annually by the hotel, are removed from the local neighbourhood and included in the recycling process.
- To cut down on the use of 39,000 plastic water bottles in the average hotel each year the group offers unlimited filtered water to guests. This is already in place in selected hotels such as the Radisson Blu Hotel Manchester Airport, UK, and the Radisson RED hotel Brussels and Belgium. Additionally, guests are offered reusable Radisson Rewards water bottles.
- The upcoming roll-out of a waste collection and recycling program of the new bulk amenity dispenser containers and soaps in North America. Beyond diverting waste from polluting lands and oceans, soap and bulk amenities will be sorted, processed, and distributed to people in need.
- In addition to making Radisson Meetings 100-percent carbon neutral, the group is working to phase out single-use plastics in meetings and events across its portfolio and has already achieved this in over 200 of its hotels, with the aim to roll-out this initiative to other properties.
Radisson Hotel Group’s initiatives are part of its commitment and participation in the International Tourism Plastic Pledge. Additionally, as an advisory committee member of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative, Radisson Hotel Group is working towards a single-use plastic-free future for the hotel industry. Together with other members, the company will continue collaborating with UN Environment, UNWTO, and Ellen MacArthur Foundation to catalyze further industry-wide action on plastic waste.
