California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law a ban on single-use plastic toiletries from all hotels within the state. The new regulations will go into effect in 2023 for hotels with 50 or more rooms; smaller hotels will have an additional year to remove the tiny bottles of plastic.
The move will affect over 526,000 hotel rooms in the Bear Republic.
Proposed in the state assembly earlier this year, the new law carries a fine of $500 for the first offense, and $2,000 for each subsequent violation. According to the bill’s author, San Jose Assemblymember Ash Kathra, the new law makes the Golden State the first in the nation to ban single-use toiletries from hotel rooms.
“I am proud to have authored legislation making California the first state in the country to accelerate more sustainable alternatives in the hotel and lodging industry by curbing our plastic consumption,” Kathra said in a press release. “Single-use products like those tiny plastic bottles commonly provided in hotel rooms represent a sizable amount of waste that can be easily eliminated through more cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternatives.”
Banning of the single-use toiletries, ordinarily made of plastic, comes as large hotel chains such as Marriott International and Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) have begun phasing out the single-use amenities, replacing them with more cost-effective and sustainable alternatives, such as larger, refillable dispenser bottles.
The new law is opposed by the personal care industry, which says it would harm small and medium-sized businesses that package and distribute the tiny bottles.
