Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas is one of the first hotel companies that joined the Global Tourism Plastic Initiative. This new program was developed by the UN World Tourism Organization together with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. As the hotel chain decided to be sustainable and reduce its imprint on the environment as much as possible, Sis Senses is famous for its ecological initiatives. Earlier, the company banned single-use plastic at its hotels to reduce unnecessary waste, but this time the company has gone even further. The hotelier plans to become completely free of all plastics by 2020.
Plastic is contagious to the planet starting from the extraction of fuel fossil to disposal problems. It has become a plague in recent decades. The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative addresses companies and governments, encouraging them to take action and limit the use of plastics. Even though this initiative targets reducing the use of plastic and circulating the plastic that is already in use by 2025, Six Senses decided to become completely plastic-free in just two years.
This is a bold target that will be definitely not easy to reach, but the hotelier has a plan. First of all, the hotel company plans to remove all single-use plastic. After that, Six Senses will ban virgin plastic at its properties. The company’s hotels in Mumbai, Laamu, Istanbul, etc. will try to produce zero landfill waste. Finally, all single-use products like plastic water bottles, plastic straws, single-use shampoos and other amenities will be also removed.
After that, the hotelier will work with the packaging used at hotel rooms and bathrooms to remove any unnecessary plastic. By 2022, all service areas will have no unnecessary plastic packaging as well. Kitchens will get new reusable solutions to replace plastic food packaging and cling film. The company plans to replace them with naturally compostable materials.
To make these goals come true, Six Senses will have to work with suppliers to develop new ways of product packaging. Finally, all waste generated by hotels will be sorted and recycled or composted to reach the zero waste goal. As the travel industry has been rapidly growing in recent years, it started to generate more waste. Today, hospitality leaders need to understand their responsibility and try to reduce their environmental imprint.