Marriott International has announced that it will remove one billion plastic straws and around a quarter of a billion stirrers from its properties across the world with a year.
This builds on the hospitality company’s plans to eliminate more than 35 million small plastic toiletry bottles from its hotels every year, and deliver a 45% cut in landfill waste by 2025.
With over one million guests staying at Marriott properties every night, CEO Arne Sorenson said the latest move was a “powerful step forward to reducing our reliance on plastics”.
“Removing plastic straws is one of the simplest ways our guests can contribute to plastic reduction when staying with us – something they are increasingly concerned about and are already doing in their own homes,” he added.
UK government scientists believe ocean plastic is set to treble in a decade unless marine litter is curbed – with one million birds and over 100,000 sea mammals dying every year as a result.
In conjunction with its latest announcement, Marriott also said it would eliminate plastic straws from its corporate headquarters.
The policies will take full effect at both managed and franchised properties by July 2019, giving hotels time to deplete their existing supply of plastic straws, identify alternate sources, and educate staff to modify customer service.
This is part of the hotel chain’s Serve 360: Doing Good in Every Direction initiative to address social, environmental, and economic issues.
Marriot eliminated plastic straws and began offering alternates in more than 60 of its UK hotels back in February this year, while its Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa has become Hawaii’s first to remove plastic straws from its restaurants.
“Our guests come to stay with us to enjoy Maui’s beautiful environment and incredible marine life, so they’re as eager as we are to reduce harmful pollution,” said Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa general manager, Tetsuji Yamazaki.
“By eliminating plastic straws, we have been able to create a substantive dialogue with our guests about the importance of protecting the ocean and endangered animals.”
Image credit: iStock
