IHCL makes all its hotels free of plastic straws

The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) announced the elimination of plastic straws from all its hotels. This decision comes close on the heels of a move to phase out single-use plastics on the occasion of Earth Hour. Earlier this year, the company had also launched its first ever “Zero Single Use Plastic Hotel”, Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, Andamans.

Speaking on the initiative, Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) said “We at IHCL have taken a pledge to phase out single-use plastics from all our hotels so that we can play a small but significant role in our endeavour to conserve the environment. This decision of eliminating plastic straws is in line with our ethos of weaving in sustainable and responsible practices in business operations.”

Plastic straws are amongst the smallest plastic items used in the industry and they alone contribute to over 4% of plastic pollution in the oceans. IHCL’s hotels across its brands – Taj, Vivanta and Ginger will phase out the use of plastic straws in the next hundred days. All hotels in Maharashtra have already replaced the plastic straws with those made of paper and other bio-degradable material.