Marriott Bans Straws, Eliminating A Billion Straws Per Year

The largest hotel chain in world pledges to remove plastic straws from all of its 6500 hotels

Marriott just promised to remove plastic straws and plastic beverage stirrers from all of its more than 6,500 hotels by July 2019.

As the largest hotel company in the world, Marriott’s move will eliminate more than 1 billion plastic straws and about a quarter-billion stirrers per year that would otherwise end up in landfills and oceans.

Marriott’s not the first hotel chain to eliminate straws, just the largest.

Hilton plans to eliminate straws by the end of this year. Hyatt will no longer offer guests straws or drink stirrers unless guests ask for them starting in September. Four Seasons announced plans to eliminate the products in April. AccorHotels is doing away with straws at its North and Central American properties this month.

The Sheraton Maui Resort and Spa became Hawaii’s first resort to remove plastic straws last August, saving 30,000 plastic straws per month.

“Our guests come to stay with us to enjoy Maui’s beautiful environment and incredible marine life, so they’re as eager as we are to reduce harmful pollution,” said Sheraton Maui Resort and Spa General Manager Tetsuji Yamazaki. “By eliminating plastic straws, we have been able to create a substantive dialogue with our guests about the importance of protecting the ocean and endangered animals like the green sea turtle.”

Momentum to eliminate single-use plastic is growing across the entire travel industry, as it pollutes tourist destinations around the world. Bali declared a “garbage emergency” last year because so much plastic was washing up on its beaches.

Alaska Air is replacing plastic stir straws with compostable birch stir sticks.

In another effort to reduce single-use plastic pollution, Marriott is in the process of replacing began  small plastic toiletry bottles with large, in-shower dispensers in more than 1,500 hotels by the end of the year.