Shanghai hotels stop offering disposable toiletries

SHANGHAI -- Starting Monday, hotels in Shanghai are requested to stop offering disposable toiletry kits unless customers ask, amid efforts to reduce waste and pursue green development.

Hotel guests are encouraged to use and reuse recyclable daily consumables during their stay, such as toothbrushes, combs, bath sponges, razors, nail files and shoe polish.

The move is stipulated in a set of regulations on garbage sorting and recycling that went into effect in Shanghai on Monday.

Under the new regulations, most household plastic wastes should be sorted and recycled. The city also encourages individuals and companies to reduce their use of disposable plastic products.

Kunlun Jing An hotel is one of those that answered the government call by not offering disposable toiletry kits unless asked.

The new measure by Shanghai's hotels will help reduce plastic waste since plastic is the main material used in disposable hotel toiletry kits, the hotel said.

"Shanghai is taking a lead in the country to combat plastic waste," said Gerd Knaust, general manager of Kunlun Jing An hotel. "Hotels, as a window of the city, should make contributions to sorting and recycling garbage and encourage more customers from around the world to lead an eco-friendly life."

The hotel has informed its potential customers of the change via online and offline channels.

"It is a good thing to reduce waste in daily life," said Zhang Wei, 40, from east China's Shandong Province who checked in the hotel for a business trip. He brought a reusable toothbrush after being informed by the hotel in advance.

At least 6.5 million sets of disposable toiletry kits are estimated to be used every day if the occupancy rate is 50 percent for the 13 to 15 million hotel rooms across China, said Du Liangliang of the Hotel Business Unit of Ctrip, China's leading online travel agency.

"If hotels across the country follow suit to not offer disposable toiletry kits, it would be a significant step towards reducing the amount of waste," Du said.