No More Taking Home Tiny Toiletries, New York Bans Them

When you check out of a hotel, do you pocket any of those leftover tiny bottles of toiletries to take home? Soon you won't be able to if you're staying in a hotel in New York State.

Effective beginning on January 1st, 2025, hotels with 50 or more rooms will be prohibited from providing guests with single-use toiletry bottles in the state of New York. This ban will be extended to smaller hotels with less than 50 rooms by January 1st, 2026.

Instead of providing small bottles, hotels will be required to offer bulk dispensers for soap, shampoo, and conditioner in guest rooms as a more eco-friendly alternative to single-use plastic bottles.

The purpose of the law is to help New York State reach its environmental goals of reducing plastic waste.

Proponents of the new law argued that travelers often use only a portion of the products provided in small bottles, which are later discarded and not always recycled. By eliminating these small bottles, hotels are able to reduce the amount of plastic waste they generate, promoting eco-friendliness within New York State.

However, others say that this ban may come at a cost for some travelers, as they may need to find alternative methods to easily access toiletries while traveling.

While large hotels will be required to provide bulk dispensers for soap, shampoo, and conditioner in every guest room instead of small bottles by January 1, 2025, it is believed that smaller hotels with less than 50 rooms will be required to do the same when the law takes effect for those businesses on January 1, 2026.

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The new law is set to take effect in just a few short months, and it will be interesting to see how it impacts hotel guests in New York State. If successful, other states may follow suit and implement their own bans on small toiletry bottles in an effort to reduce their environmental footprint.