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The end of the tiny bottle?
Hotel shampoo, soap and lotion.
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Jeremy Hobson: If you think about it, the hotel industry hasn't changed much in the last several decades. You've still got the same things: bed, TV, dresser, tiny little shampoo bottles in the bathroom.
Well, actually that last one may be on the way out, as Marketplace's Adriene Hill reports.
Adriene Hill: It can be frustrating in a hotel shower not to have enough shampoo left in that little, tiny bottle. You shake and cajole in an effort to squeeze out just a little bit more.
But not at the high-end SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, where they've stocked the shower with full-sized bottles.
Thomas Meding: Which really allows you to go completely crazy and soap yourself as much and as often as you want to from head to toe.
Thomas Meding is the general manager there. You can tell he's good at what he does by the very next line out of his mouth:
Meding: Or not at all, it's really entirely up to you.
Meding says the hotel use big bottles because they want to create more of a residential feel, plus they reduce waste -- which is something a whole lot of hotels are aiming to do, both up-market and down-market.
Michelle Millar is a professor at the University of San Francisco. She says those tiny plastic bottles create extra work for housekeeping; they create a whole lot of trash and can cost more than the alternatives. But getting rid of them is tough. It's hard to come up with an alternative that visitors will like.
With big bottles:
Michelle Millar: Consumers are still a little bit hesitant with the big bottles because of sanitary reasons, what's in those bottles, did anybody tamper with them.
And with the other primary option -- those wall-mounted soap dispensers:
Millar: Consumers have been really reluctant to use those. I think it reminds them of going to the gym.
Brandon Conard: They see it sort of like truck stop bathroom dispensers.
Consultant Brandon Conard says those perceptions could change in time, with a good education program. Kind of like the tags you see about saving water by not replacing towels.
Conard: You could put a little sign on the soap that says, "Hey, we're saving 10,000 bottles from going to the landfill by using these dispensers, we hope you like them."
Or maybe it'll just take more people realizing how fun it is to go lather-crazy with all the soap they could possibly use. Or not.
I'm Adriene Hill for Marketplace.
Did I hear the program host correctly say that he has HUNDREDS of little hotel soaps and shampoos? Hundreds? Really? I have used them in my gym bag and for camping, but then, I don't travel often, so I don't have hundreds. Thanks to Robert and Jane (previous commenters), we have 2 great ideas for passing them on to someone who could really use them. Clean the World also accepts donations from individuals and groups of (new, unused, unopened) soap and shampoo. I hope the host will forward his hundreds on. What good are they doing if they're not getting somebody clean?
I always am curious as to what happwns to all the partly used, or for that matter unused, bottles form hotel bathrooms. I've always assumed the housekeeping staff keeps their own household supplied with "free" soap from the bathrooms they clean...nothing wrong with that...and who, other than they, knows if the guest actually used the shampoo or not si if a couple or three "new" bottles a week go home with the maid, what's the difference. The guest has already paid for it. I often take home the partiallyused,or not,container myself...but after a bit I find I have more little bottles of shampoo and lotion than I can possibly use. I suppose donating them to a homeless shelter is then th "warm and fuzzy" thing to do.
I found this article to be a little conflicting! Who says that the product hasn't been tampered with if it is supplied in a miniature rather than a larger size bottle? After all, aren't the hotel just going to top-up all those large bottles after they've been used? Surely, the use of the larger size bottle has more to do with the hotel's bottom line than their desire to be environmentally sensitive. What is REALLY environmentally and sustainably a better option is to encourage every hotel to sign up to the Clean the World's, www.cleantheworld.org, Hotel Partnership Program where the bottles, their contents AND the little bars of soap are collected, recycled and sent to impoverished people around the world who die every day from acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease because they have no soap. The death toll is staggering. Each year more than five million lives are lost to these diseases with the majority of deaths being among children less than five years old. Studies have shown that simple hand washing substantially reduces the spread of these diseases. Unfortunately, the essential items for proper hand washing are unobtainable for millions of people worldwide. Something to think on when you next complain about the tiny bottles of shampoo in hotels being too small! Recycle soap and save lives.
