One of the world’s leading hotel companies, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), has announced that its entire hotel estate will switch to bulk-size bathroom amenities to reduce plastic waste.

The move, which will affect IHG’s entire estate of almost 843,000 guest rooms worldwide, is set to be completed during 2021. The plastic reduction move is part of a broader sustainability agenda, and affects all of IHG’s brands.

Keith Barr, IHG’s CEO, said: “It’s more important than ever that companies challenge themselves to operate responsibly – we know it’d what our guests, owners, colleagues, investors and suppliers rightly expect. Switching to larger-size amenities across more than 5,600 hotels around the world is a big step in the right direction and will allow us to significantly reduce our waste footprint and environmental impact as we make the change.

“We’ve already made great strides in this area, with almost a third of our estate already adopting the change and we’re proud to lead our industry by making this a brand standard for every single IHG hotel. We’re passionate about sustainability and we’ll continue to explore ways to make a positive difference to the environment and our local communities.”

Currently, IHG uses an average of 200m bathroom miniatures in use across its entire hotel estate per year, so the change should result in a significant reduction in plastic waste. It joins IHG’s previous pledge to remove plastic straws from its hotels by the end of 2019, and a number of other, broader waste reduction initiatives already in place.

IHG is a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index, and recently joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Circular Economy 100 network, signalling a commitment to work with cross-industry partners to build a more sustainable world.

IMAGE CREDIT: InterContinental Hotels Group