New York state plans to require hotels to ban small bottles of “hospitality care” products like shampoo and lotion.
The move comes after the New York State Assembly passed a bill that it hopes will reduce waste.
According to the Department of Environmental Conservation’s website, starting Jan. 1, 2025, hotels with more than 50 rooms will no longer be able to provide toiletry bottles smaller than 12 ounces.
The law, first introduced in 2019, defines a “hospitality personal care product” as “a product provided by a hotel that is intended to be applied to or used on the human body or any part of it for cleansing.”
The law stipulates that hotels that violate the regulations will first receive a warning and then be ordered to “correct the violation” within 30 days.
If a hotel fails to comply, it will be “liable to pay a civil penalty of $250 to the state.”
According to the law, if hotels continue to serve bottles within the next 30 days, they will be fined $500.
Some large hotels have already begun making adjustments.
“We have long been committed to our Home Amenities Program and have switched from small toiletry bottles to larger pump bottles as part of our efforts to reduce plastic waste,” a Marriott Hotels spokesperson told FOX Business.
The spokesperson added that by the end of 2023, Marriott Hotels will achieve 95% compliance with the transition to residential bath amenities for select company-owned and franchised hotel brands globally, with additional properties on track to transition by 2024.
A Hilton spokesperson told FOX Business: “Beginning in 2023, Hilton hotels will be required to transition to full-size shampoo, conditioner and soap amenities, eliminating single-use mini bottles and reducing soap waste.”
The rollout will begin with larger hotels, and all New York hotels will have to follow suit from 2026.
The law was set to go into effect on January 1, 2023, but hotel industry lobbyists had called for a delay to allow hotel staff to use any remaining bottles in stock, Fox News reported.
A similar law went into effect in California last year, banning the sale of small cosmetic bottles in hotels across the state.
FOX Business has reached out to the New York State Assembly’s Committee on Environmental Conservation for additional comment.
