At thegreenlist.nl we love travelling and yes, even when living out of our suitcases, we look for ways to do it more consciously. One thing we'd never thought about are those lovely flip-flops you often get as a gift in better hotels. Oof. That turns out to be a huge waste problem. Research by The Sunday Times show that millions of hotel slippers end up directly in the bin after a stay. And because they are often made of plastic, they persist for a very long time.
The hidden rubbish tip behind hotel slippers
The research of The Sunday Times followed the journey of hotel slippers from factory to landfill. And that journey usually begins in China, where millions of slippers are produced for hotels around the world. The cheapest type costs less than six pence per pair, comes in a plastic sleeve, and is intended for single use. The upper part is often made of polypropylene or polyester, and the sole from EVA foam, a plastic that is also used in sports shoes and yoga mats, for example. This makes the slippers light, soft, and cheap, but also difficult to process as waste. Many pairs are incinerated after use, while others end up in landfills. According to the research, EVA can take hundreds, even up to a thousand years, to break down there. And even then, it doesn't really disappear but disintegrates into ever smaller pieces of plastic.
A gigantic mountain of waste for something you use one night.
No one knows exactly how many hotel slippers are thrown away worldwide. But the figures that The Sunday Times gathered, do give an impression of the scale. The newspaper looked at one hundred luxury hotels in cities such as London, Paris, Barcelona, New York and Shanghai. Those hotels alone would account for around 18 million discarded pairs per year. And this is where it gets truly grim. Not all slippers that are discarded have actually been used. In many hotels, slippers cannot be offered again once the packaging has been opened. As a result, even an unused pair can end up directly in the rubbish.
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Also interesting: How do you spot those sustainable hotels?
It can also be done without disposable slippers
But there is also good news. Nice things are happening in the hotel world too. Not every hotel sticks to disposable slippers, we know from experience. For example, we spotted at Hotel blooming slippers made of bamboo, plastic-free packaged and sturdy enough to be used at home for a long time. Why don't more hotels do that? Well, because they cost on average sixteen times more to acquire. Not every hotel can afford that. We understand that too. Other hotels opt for a different approach and don't offer slippers at all anymore. Guests bring their own pair for the spa or can borrow a reusable pair. Perhaps slightly less luxurious at first glance, but a lot more logical when you consider how much waste is otherwise generated.
Our tip? If you see unused hotel slippers in your room, leave them in their packaging. If you're attached to slippers during your hotel stay, just pack your own pair in your suitcase. It saves a pair of slippers that would otherwise end up in the bin after one night.
Review the entire investigation of The Sunday Times with beautiful infographics!
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Photo credits: Polina Tankilevitch, Pexels (main image), others: thegreenlist.nl.
