How to minimise single use plastic in your listing? Happy Plastic Free July!

[Felicity11]

Hi hosts and happy "Plastic Free July"

Have you heard of Plastic Free July, it is a movement around the world that aims to help people lower their consumption of plastic.

As hosts there are things we can do in our listings to help our guests lower there plastic consumption and may go on to inspire a guest to then incorporate this into there every day life.

Have you made any changes to your listing to lower the plastic usage for your guests when staying?  

Have any of your guests commented on these initiatives?

I know that we are not the only ones doing this and I now see that more and more hotels are also moving away from single use items. 

A few of the things we offer a few things to guests are

Reusable shopping bags

Reusable water bottles and coffee cups

Refillable liquid soap, shampoo, conditioner, dishwashing liquid, and others

Metal clothes pegs and washing baskets made from natural plants (cane and raffia)

To help keep containers being used and not thrown away we have a small sticky table on items that can be refilled.  It't not fool proof but it helps! 

Changes do not happen over night and small steps add up over time. Have you thought about reducing plastic usage in your listing?  What do you offer in your listing?  What do your guests say?   

[Daniel1651]

Welcome Julio Plastic Free!

I didn't know about this initiative but I love to hear it, @Felicity11

In my house I  leave reusable shopping bags and glass bottles so they can refill and use tap water that is completely drinkable.

Very good idea to place a label on those products that are refillable!

It's also good to have a little chat or comment about these things with guests.

It is a way of giving value to small gestures.

My guests are very happy knowing that we make small gestures to take care of the planet.

Oh, another thing, I recommend them go to the farmer's markets, where the fruits and vegetables are fresh, zero kilometer and also come unpackaged - plastic free- 🙂

[Karen114]

We have done the same. Got rid of single use plastic toiletries and use a wall mounted shampoo and conditioner reservoir. 

Reusable shopping bags for the supermarket and refillable dishwashing and hand soap bottles. 

[Felicity11]

Hi Karen

Great to get your comments and that is great to hear that you have the wall mounted shampoo and conditioner set up.  Great to hear you also have supermarket bags and refillable containers.. I think this is becoming more and more mainstream. I hope we inspire some of our guests to try it!

Do you remember where you got your wall mounted set up from?  There may be others in your area who may be interested to know.. 

[Felicity11]

Hi @Daniel1651 

Great to hear from you and to hear all the about the things you do to help guest minimise there plastic usage. 

Its great to know you have guests in your part of the world who are interested to reduce the usage of plastic. 

Oh so lovely to hear you have farmers markets close by that guests can frequent and cut down on packaged products even more. 

[Delphine348]

Hello @Felicity11 @Karen114 @Daniel1651 ,

Plastic free July is not very well advertised in France except on environmental media. I have been thinking about reducing plastic for my activity and I explain it to my guest upon arrival and in my house rules.

I explain:

- tap water is drinkable

- there is glass drink bottles

- there is a soda stream machine - it makes soda water from tap water- you even can flavour it

- all cleaning products are in refillable bottles 

- reusable shopping bags available

Since I have add the soda stream machine, I see less plastic bottle in the recycle bin almost none except for coke or other sugar soda.

Guest are happy with the cleaning products , all biological and eco certified. As we have a phyto treatment for wasted waters it is complementary .

There is no single-use tableware at all, only reusable dishes.

It is very easy to take care of plastic reduction, except when there is too much plastic in food products. I see it when guests come as group of friends and don’t cook a lot: the recycle bin is often full of plastic from food products...

[Felicity11]

Hi @Delphine348 

Great to hear from you and it sounds like you are doing a wonderful job just helping guests to be more mindful of plastic usage and all teh useful things they can do to minimise there waste..  I think water usage is a big one as many guests don't realise that in many parts of the world it is ok to drink tap water and not buy water. 

We are staring to see some restaurants offer a returna system so if you order take aways from them you can either sign up to use a container system that can be refilled each time you buy from them or you can take along your own containers to be filled. It is still in its infancy here but I hope this grows and we can share it with guests. 

[Laurelle3]

@Felicity11 unfortunately information about "Plastic free July" has been scarce on our media due to rain, floods, homes under water, the increase of new strains of Covid being detected, foot and mouth disease in near by countries, bees being infected and political influence from China in the Pacific, war in Ukraine, Prime Minister travelling to the G20 in Europe, Wimbledon, Rugby and lastly Englands Prime Minister standing down.

Sadly, their are many things on our minds Downunder than thinking of "Plastic Free July"

However, your mention of "Plastic Free July" makes one think of what am I doing with my own Airbnb.

Like yourself I make available recyclable shopping bags, refillable glass water bottle in the fridge, recycleable containers for leftover food.

We use and recycle the garbage plastic bag liners the guests have used and have been emptied  in my own house. The small plastic bags that the fruit and vegetables from the supermarkets,  I recycle them in the bathroom bin and in the compost bin. 

Unfortunately, I can't offer a cane washing basket (no space) but have a collapsable one which doesnt take up space and is offered for a babies bath.

I do offer large shampoo, conditioner and shower gel for the bathroom along with dishwashing liquid which are refillable and I support a local company for bulk sales. I still have small bathroom supplies and leave for guests but they are hardly used and left in the bathroom or bedroom not used. 

The good news is that most of our guests are aware of recycling, want more information about my worm farm, leave the car and walk to the beach, shops and resturants. Also our town Huskisson has been pladtic bag free for 3 years now.

[Felicity11]

Hi @Laurelle3 

Great to hear from you and yes I agree we have had a lot in the news about the recent flooding and other major issues and not a lot about plastic free July.   There are many things going on in the world these issues seem to not be talked about as much.

How fantastic to be part of a community like Huskisson that has been plastic bag free for 3 years.  That is  no mean feat and what a lot of work the community has done to make this happen.   I am sure it has had a in impact on visitors to the region and all then backed up by all you do in your airbnb helps show that with a bit of work it is possible.   

Fantastic to hear about all you are doing and what is happening in Huskisson!

[Till-and-Jutta0]

Before reading this post, I even didn’t know that there is a Plastic Free July movement. So I checked the internet for more official information in our country: Some NGO’s mention it and ask for joining the Plastic Free July challenge.

Personally I find that a great idea! When buying drinks we prefer glass bottles. And not the disposable ones, but we have a nation-wide system of reusable glass bottles with a deposit. As far as I know they can be used up to 50 times. There is even a system for refillable plastic bottles, but this works up to 20 times only.

As our international guests often don’t know about the different bottles, we just ask them to collect in our bottles basket, from where we recycle or bring them back to the bottle return stations.

Long ago the supermarkets already stopped providing free plastic bags. Only for fruit and vegetables they are still allowed – but there you can use your own nets. And the supermarkets just started selling their pre-packed fruit and vegetable in open paper boxes (without plastic cover), to be weighed at the cashier to fix the final price:

fruit at our supermarket

In our guest bathroom (as well in our own one) since long we use refillable soap dispensers.

We could do so much – we just have to start!

[Felicity11]

Hi @Till-and-Jutta0 

Great to hear from you and to hear more about what is happening in Germany.  

That glass and plastic bottle recycling sounds like a fantastic endeavour for every one.   I agree when you travel it is hard to keep up with what can be recycled in each country and how best to do this.  It is great to hear how you explain this to guests.

I am also so inspired to see how your fruit and veggies are sold. In Australia a lot of our berries are still sold in clear plastic containers however we are now starting to see a few places offering these for sale in cardboard containers like you have.. I hope this becomes more mainstream.. Thank you for showing us this  I am so inspired and hope we can follow in your footsteps to have better packaging.. 

[Huma0]

@Felicity11 

I have reusable shopping bags in the kitchen that guests can use. I do find however that most guests are pretty good with this already and usually have their own. Here in the UK, you have to pay for bags at the supermarket and, since this law was introduced, the majority of people take bags to the supermarket. A financial incentive, no matter how small, seems to make a huge difference.

The tap water here is perfectly safe to drink. However, when I still hosted short term guests, many of them would go through a huge amount of plastic water bottles, even though at the time I had a filter tap they could use. Now I host long term guests, most of them seem to drink the tap water rather than buy bottled. I do have reusable water bottles and coffee cups if anyone needs them but, again, guests seem to have their own. I guess this is one of the advantages of hosting long term stays.

What would greatly help though is if the supermarkets here used less plastic packaging. You can buy some fruit and veg loose, but most stuff is packaged, which not only creates more single use plastic, but also more food waste. My guests are solo travellers. They often just need one onion, not a bag of eight of them!

Stores where you can take your own containers and refill with produce have become trendy here but they are few and far between and very expensive. It's hard for most people in this economic climate to justify the cost. This is the plastic packaging from two guests for ONE breakfast.

I encourage my guests to recycle as much as possible (this includes food waste), but sadly, here we can only recycle hard plastics. All the thinner ones (plastic bags, film, packaging for salads and vegetables etc.) has to go in the bin that goes to landfill. I really hope this will change soon.

[Felicity11]

Hi @Huma0 

Great to hear from you and interesting to hear how things are handled in your part of the world and what guests can and can not do when staying in your region. 

It is interesting to hear how plastics are dealt with around the world as some countries are becoming very good at minimising them at @Till-and-Jutta0 showed us earlier and some countries are just not yet set up to recycle plastics or can only recycle some plastics.  I think this just goes to show all the more reason to try and avoid it in the first place - if possible. 

From the sounds of this thread many many hosts around the world are putting into place all sorts of helpful initiatives to help guests travel and be plastic free where they can.  I believe every small act helps. 

[Sybe]

@Huma0 I completely agree with the packaging in the supermarkets here. It's ridiculous how much single-use plastics are being used and especially because most different packaging is just for "convenience".

For water we do use a filtered jug at home. Tap water in Greater London is safe to drink, but tasty is a different story! Though with your filter tap I imagine you bypass the need for something like a filter jug.

[Huma0]

@Sybe 

I don't have the filter tap anymore because a clueless plumber broke it. I've been hunting around for another one but can't find anything in the same style (brass and traditional) to go with my kitchen, so I think I'm going to end up just getting a regular, non-filter tap and then maybe get a filter jug. You have to replace the filters for the tap, so it's not that much different than having the jug and a lot more expensive!

To be honest, none of the guests used it. I would show them the tap when they checked in but pretty much every guest would then forget about it. The water here in London is very hard, but several guests told me they liked it and preferred it to the filtered water. No one has ever complained about the taste of the tap water yet! I feel like people either drink the tap water or they don't and will buy plastic bottles anyway.