Apex Hotels has today (4 June) announced its plans to remove plastic straws from its hotel restaurants and bars in time for World Environment Day on 5 June.
The national family-owned hotel group, headquartered in Edinburgh, have promised to stop using plastic straws in all ten of their properties throughout the UK, with customers who request straws offered paper or biodegradable vegware alternatives.
In celebration of World Environment Day, Apex confirms two brand new initiatives in the fight against plastic. The national day is organised by the United Nation’s every year to encourage people to help protect the environment.
The hotel group calculated that over 33,000 straws were used in the past 11 months in Apex properties.
Angela Vickers, CEO of Apex Hotels, (pictured) said, “Like many others within the hospitality industry, we are determined to play our part in protecting the environment.
“It is our duty to be environmentally conscious so it was important to us to ensure plastic straws were banned from all our hotels. When you think of the potential billions of straws that are used every year here in the UK, this is a step in the right direction to ensure we are doing our bit to help reduce the plastic that is put into the environment.”
Apex Hotels will only stock Plastico PLA Cold Drink Straws which are made from 100% renewable resources, and the Utopia Paper Straw Range which are fully recyclable, biodegradable and completely food safe.
All hotels in the portfolio, which include hotels in London, Glasgow, Dundee, Bath and Edinburgh, have also just become water refilling stations as part of another UK wide initiative to reduce plastic waste.
The hotel brand has signed up with Refill which now has over 1,600 refill stations in the UK.
This means that Apex Hotels will be listed on the Refill app as a refill station, allowing members of the public to come into the hotel with their own water bottle and refill with water for free.
Vickers continued, “This is another great initiative which we are proud to be a part of. By encouraging people to reuse their water bottles and refill, it helps reduce the tonnes of plastic that end up in landfills and oceans.
“This is also a part of our #warmerwelcome campaign where we are always looking for new ways to help guests get the most out of their stay.”
Customers can download the app to find stations and each hotel will have a sticker which will notify passers-by.