The City Lodge Hotel Group (CLHG) has been working hard behind the scenes to strip out single-use plastic from guest bedrooms. In a bold move, the group, together with its South African supplier The Bespoke Amenities Company (TBAC), is launching an all-new range of bathroom amenities, including a Zero Bar. These will be available across all five hotel brands – Fairview Hotel (Kenya), Courtyard Hotel, City Lodge Hotel, Town Lodge and Road Lodge – in what is a first for a South African hotel group, and among the first in the world.

The new guest amenities range includes the Zero Bar collection produced by TBAC, and includes:

Hair & Body Zero Bar – made using no water, with a dollop of avocado and argan oil, to replace liquid shampoo and liquid body wash Minus two plastic bottles and two plastic caps

Hand Bar – replaces the soap bars and made with a dollop of coconut and sunflower oil Minus two plastic flow wraps

Body Cream – enriched with shea butter and packed in recyclable aluminium tube and cap made from recycled plastic minus plastic bottle

Shower Cap – made using corn starch minus plastic flow wrap

The Zero bars also reduce the carbon footprint of the supply chain, as previously the liquid products meant trucking water around the country.

Other products available on request from reception will include:

Shave Kit, Dental Kit, Vanity Kit, Sanitary Bags, Reuseable Shoe Mitts and a Sewing Kit!

As the stock of the existing amenities runs down in hotels, it will be replaced with the new environmentally-friendly range. Guests will be encouraged to take their amenities home with them and a Zero Bar “Bar Saver” may be purchased at reception if needed.

The group has 62 hotels in six countries in East and Southern Africa offering 8070 rooms to business and leisure travellers. In its bid to “cut the nonsense”, as Bruce Turner, MD of TBAC puts it, here is how much “nonsense” CLHG will have cut from landfill per year in future:

– PET bottles: 688 201 units
– Flow wraps: 1 364 954 units
– Plastic tubes: 67 829 units
– Boxed accessories (non-FSC board) 53 142 units

That’s a staggering 2 141 434 units less of plastic in South Africa’s landfills each year.

Bruce adds, “City Lodge Hotel Group had a desire for an alternative to plastic-intensive amenities and we came up with a groundbreaking solution. We care for our country, our guests, our company and our environment with which we have been entrusted by future generations. Above all, we care for people. In these important areas, our core values and those of City Lodge Hotel Group are aligned. This collaboration to launch a range of environmentally-friendly guest amenities means less plastic on bathroom countertops and beaches. Together, we have made it easy for guests to make a difference.”

Bravo City Lodge Hotel Group! Find out more HERE…