More hotels join the fight against plastic waste in Cambodia

The event aimed to encourage hotels to reduce their plastic waste by showing that it makes environmental, social and economic sense. On the last point, the Cambodian Hotel Association already reported in 2015 that poor sanitation including poor waste management was responsible for $ 74 million of foregone tourist revenues per year [1].

Guests are also increasingly reporting their concerns regarding plastic use in hotels on social media such as TripAdvisor. Clean Green Cambodia also showed that reducing plastic use is not expensive, and can actually reduce costs by switching to refillable shampoo, shower gel, putting bathroom amenities at the reception instead of in the room, or swapping to reusable laundry bags. The Global Green Growth Institute Cambodia, an intra-governmental organization, also presented additional steps that hotel can take to be more environmentally friendly such as reducing water and energy consumption.