Melia Hotels International recently revealed that it will move to eliminate single-use plastics across all hotels in 2018 at the group’s general shareholders’ meeting. The decision, Melia’s CEO and executive vice president Gabriel Escarrer said, was made to continue the company’s efforts to combat climate change.
Escarrer said the company was further motivated by the Paris Climate Summit to continue building the environmentally-friendly efforts. The elimination is expected to avoid more than 15 tonnes of CO2 emissions generated each year by waste disposal.
"Combatting climate change and reducing emissions has been part of our strategy for years. With well-established energy efficiency programmes in hotels and agreements with suppliers regarding the exclusive use of renewable energy, it was recently further ratified by the company assuming the commitments defined at the Paris Climate Summit,” he stated.
As for eliminating single-use plastics from the entire value chain, Escarrer said it will have a “significant impact” on the company and provide Melian Hotels an opportunity to raise awareness about climate change among its 30 million customers who stay at its properties every year.
Escarrer stated that, "great customer experiences have to be compatible with respect for the planet", and also mentioned that climate change is one of the material issues that is of greatest interest to its stakeholders, as stated in its Annual Report.
The hotel company has already drawn up a roadmap to replace single-use plastics — which includes bottles, cups, bags, coasters and straws etc. — with biodegradable or environmentally-friendly alternatives before the end of 2018, and also provide alternatives for in-room cosmetics, a statement from the company said.
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