Our managing director, Simon Ewins, said, “Whitbread has a long history of minimising the unnecessary use of single-use plastics – Premier Inn has never used miniature bath and shower products and we were one of the first businesses to eliminate plastic straws and stirrers, so we’ve already made huge steps, particularly in terms of consumer-facing plastics - this is just the start.
In many ways what we’re looking at now with our 2025 commitment is the less visible stuff - the hard yards that collectively can make a huge difference. It’s about forensically examining our supply chain and eliminating the use of unnecessary single-use plastics wherever we can – from the products consumers will notice, to those behind-the-scenes that they won’t, right down to wrappers on textiles. As with any meaningful commitment to change – it won’t happen overnight but we’re unwavering in our belief that eliminating unnecessary single-use plastics is absolutely the right thing to do for our business, our guests and the environment.”
The scale of what we’re planning is huge, but we need to make these changes for the good of the business, our guests and the environment. We’re looking forward to doing business better and cutting out unnecessary single-use plastics throughout all our hotels and restaurants.