Last October, the state of California introduced a new bill that will ban hotels from providing mini toiletries in plastic bottles by 2023. If they want anything other than a bar of soap, travellers will be forced to use wall-mounted dispensers or bring their own shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.
While this decision makes sense from a plastic pollution standpoint – 5.7 billion plastic amenity bottles are sent to North American landfills annually – guests are unlikely to jump on the dispenser bandwagon. There's something icky about knowing previous guests could have had access to it. And if one forgets to bring products, one will end up buying plastic bottles from a nearby store anyway.
EarthSuds, an innovative new startup based in Ontario, Canada, was recently selected by National Geographic as one of the top 10 global solutions to addressing ocean plastic waste. EarthSuds makes single-use shampoo, conditioner, and body wash cubes that could be used by the hospitality industry, as well as by people travelling or at home who wish to reduce their plastic footprint. The small cubes break down with water and pressure, giving users a foamy lather to wash their bodies and hair as usual.
EarthSuds was the brainchild of 19-year-old Canadian Marissa Vettoretti back in 2017, when she entered a circular design competition and realized that amenity bottles are actually never recycled.
"They are filtered out at recycling facilities because the bottles are too small, have a low quality grade of plastic, and are often still contaminated with soap."
Vettoretti realized this was an area she wanted to focus on, and so EarthSuds was born. The result is a company that is sustainable in a range of ways. "Economically it generates and re-invests profits, socially it employs adults with developmental disabilities, and environmentally it eliminates single-use plastics."
The cubes can be purchased in a variety of package sizes. Individuals will want larger boxes to support their own hair-washing needs, while hotel and short-term rental owners can opt for smaller packs with 3 cubes each of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash for guests to use. Special travel cases are also available because, as with all solid skincare products and cosmetics, they're TSA approved.
