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?   

[Sybe]

@Huma0 I had considered a filtered shower head because of how hard the water is but you're right, everyone has their preferences. A filter jug might be a good idea for guests as it's more "in your face" and harder to forget about than a filter tap. We keep ours in the fridge at all times, it's so nice to have a glass of water at a temperature a tap can only reach mid winter especially with the current heat outside!

[Huma0]

@Sybe 

True, but you can also keep bottles of regular tap water in the fridge. You don't need a filter jug for that!

[Sybe]

@Huma0 I prefer my water filtered though, and I don't think my landlord would allow me to change the tap to a filtered one. I'll stick with my jug for now! 😜

[Huma0]

@Sybe 

Fair enough. The filtered water is probably better for you anyway! 

Just so you know though, most filter taps can be used as regular taps, e.g. if someone can't be bothered to replace the filter, they would still work with the normal tap water. I'm guessing your landlord just wouldn't be keen for you to change taps in general?

[Debra300]

@Felicity11,

We take many of the same measures as you, but have a few variations due to our location.

Kitchen

- reusable bottles for seasonings, cooking oil, dish soap, multipurpose cleaner, grill cleaner, water for grill, food storage containers, and a Brita water pitcher.

Bathroom

- reusable bottles for hand soap, lotion, body wash, shampoo and conditioner.

Laundry

- reusable containers for detergent, bleach, stsin remover, plastic clothes pins (metal would quickly rust with the Caribbean sea breeze), and a silicone laundry basket (the weaved baskets get moldy due to the persistent humidity).

[Felicity11]

Hi @Debra300 

Great to hear from you and all the wonderful things that you do in your listing to reduce plastic use and waste.    Really interesting to hear about the laundry basket and humidity.  This is one of the interesting things about this post - hearing all about what hosts all over the world are doing and also the limitations that we have within our current cities.   I  think it makes a difference and hope it inspires guests to make changes when they get home.

[Michael5047]

I only use soap/shampoo/conditioner dispenser on the bathrooms and try to avoid single use toiletries..

I also provide a water pitcher so I don't buy small water bottles.

Always provided different trash carts for recycling.

[Felicity11]

HI @Michael5047 

Great to hear from you and to hear all the great things you do for your guests to help them reduce there plastic use.  It is so great to hear from you and all the other hosts and to read about all the things we are doing to help guests reduce there use of plastic when staying with us.  I think all these actions help make a difference and hopefully guests might take home some of these actions and do them when  in there own homes. 

[Anna1403]

Love all of this discussion! It's also great to add to the guest experience by making the most of your locality too - whether you're lucky enough to have super high quality drinking water or have a refill shop or refill coffee shop nearby etc, it's great to see these sorts of things make their way into guidebooks too! We provide locally made soap and shampoo bars which contain the seaweed from our local beach - guests absolutely love these as it adds to the experience and many have made the plastic free switch after trying them!

[Felicity11]

Hi @Anna1403 

Great to hear from you and wow locally made soap and shampoo bars made from local beaches - what a wonderful touch for guests to experience when they stay with you.    So inspiring to hear it helps guest to make the switch.!

[Michael-O-Reilly0]

Great Idea @Felicity11 , and looking forward to sharing this with my community group.

Our little contribution to using less plastic, was replacing the small individual soap and shampoo bottles, and  using   soap/shampoo filled wall dispensers, this reduced our overall plastic considerably over the last few years.  Our guests  have access to a fridge which contains jugs of fresh chilled water and they can replenish their water bottles with this.. This has removed the use of plastic water bottles. Thankfully most of my guests are environmentally aware and they realise we all have to play our part for the environment . On my most recent roadside cleanup, the amount of empty plastic bottles that we all collected was something else, and if every guest and host was to commit to reducing their use of these plastic  water bottles our environment would greatly improve.

[Felicity11]

Hi @Michael-O-Reilly0 

Great to hear from you and the measures you take to reduce plastic in your listing.. it is all these small measures that add up and inspire our guests to try and do better not only when they stay with us but also after they leave.   Roadside and beach side rubbish pick ups continue to be areas we need to work on..   Great to hear all about the things you are doing! I hope this inspires other hosts to keep trying.