TRENDING
Bamboo straws at
Avani
MAKING THE SWITCH
HOTELS FIND ELIMINATING PLASTIC STRAWS ISN ’ T DIFFICULT – BUT IT DOES TAKE PLANNING AND RESEARCH TO BREAK THE HABIT .
Contributed by DEBBIE CARLSON
More hotels are ditching single-use plastic straws , whether forced to find alternatives because of legislation or because of environmental concerns .
“ It ’ s a remarkably simple thing to do . And to be frank , I wished we ’ d done it earlier ,” says John Roberts , group director of sustainability and conservation at Bangkokbased Minor Hotels , whose Anantara and
Avani brands stopped using single-use plastic straws in all Asian properties in 2018 .
But it does mean finding the right alternative to plastic straws , stirrers and cocktail sticks . Simon Amos , hotel manager at Hilton Waikoloa Village in Hawaii , the first Hilton property to go plastic-straw free in 2018 , says the F & B teams tested different types of material : paper , corn starch , even candy , before settling on a compostable paper straw .
“ We weren ’ t sure if they would work in hot drinks , cold drinks , how long they ’ d last . Would they bend ? Would they go soggy ?” Amos says .
The hotel depleted its inventory before the switch . There were a few errant plastic straws after the change , but by the end of the first week , Waikoloa Village was 100 % compliant . Hilton removed plastic straws from its managed hotels at the end of 2018 ,
10 hotelsmag . com July / August 2019