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Starting on 1 June, RIU Hotels & Resorts will be offering its customers compostable straw at its hotels in Spain and Portugal; and a month later it will do the same in Cape Verde. Likewise, RIU hopes to be able to incorporate them into its hotels in America as of 2019. The initiative that came from the hotel chain’s purchasing department and its collaboration with its supplier Emicela, means the total substitution of all of the previous material by these more sustainable products with the goal of helping to reduce CO2, eliminate waste and protect the environment.
These straws, which can already be found at over 35 RIU hotels in the Canary Islands, Andalusia, Algarve, Madeira, Sal Island and Boavista in Cape Verde, are 100% biodegradable and also compostable. In other words they break down in contact with the rest of the organic waste, turning into compost or fertiliser. The decomposition time varies depending on the humidity and temperature, but under normal conditions it takes place in 40 days and without leaving visible or toxic waste behind. A major achievement if we consider that an ordinary straw takes 500 years to decompose.
To promote good use and reduce straw consumption in the bars and restaurants of its hotels, RIU has modified the customer-facing protocol for using them. Accordingly, the compostable straws are only provided when a guest explicitly asks for one, except with some cocktails where they are necessary for drinking. Additionally, the use of recycling containers is being promoted, and the bar and restaurant staff has been informed that the straws should be put in the organic waste container for later composting.
With this initiative, RIU Hotels is moving ahead of the plan presented by the European Commission this week to ban by 2021 a range of plastic items, including straws and single-use cutlery and plates; a proposal that must be accepted by the European Parliament and the EU governments. In addition, the government of the Balearic Islands has also presented a draft law on Waste Prevention to eliminate single-use plastic articles and which could come into force on 1 January 2020. That would be when distribution and sale of plastic beverage straws, among other containers made of the same material, would be prohibited.
In Spain each year five billion straws are used, but in the world and every day this figure reaches one billion. Despite seeming harmless and even decorative in some cocktails, they are considered to be the main source of marine litter, accounting for 4% of the eight million tonnes of plastic waste worldwide
4 Comments
I’m so very pleased to see this article. We stayed in Jamaica last year at Riu Negril and were appalled at the plastic waste on the beach, caused mainly by the hotel!! The waiters were just throwing the straws onto the sand when collecting up the glasses
Hi Marie!
RIU Hotels & Resorts is committed to eliminate the single-use plastics in all our hotels. For instance, in Europe we no longer offer straws in our resorts. Moreover, if a customer ask for a straw, we offer a biodegradable. We expect to apply this measure in all our hotels in America during this year. By the end of this year we hope to eliminate the single-use plastics, such as straws, amenities, laundry bags, plastic cutlery and cups, packaging and so on. Furthermore, we are working to ensure that our suppliers and partners also reduce plastic use in their packaging and encourage reuse in 2020.
Kind Regards
RIU Hotels & Resorts
Biodegradable straws, on the other hand, are created from substances like newspaper, bamboo, or cornflour.
Good afternoon,
Thank you for your comment.
Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.
Kind regards,
RIU Hotels & Resorts.