GFL are leaders in providing quality products and innovative solutions that have a positive impact on sustainability. In this editorial, they guide us on the benefits of updating amenity packaging in line with the latest industry shifts.
Is refilling the right move for you?
The removal of single dose plastics within hotels has been gathering pace. To achieve this, using refillable bulk dispensers seems to be on-trend, especially with large hotel groups.
Removing millions of single dose products annually is certainly an environmental benefit. There is a significant perceived cost benefit too!
Has the rush to refillable overlooked cosmetic legislation, customer’s wellbeing, hidden costs, and exposed hoteliers to product liability?
Legislation requires cosmetic packaging to include a list of ingredients, a responsible person, a batch number and a country of origin. In most instances, if the original manufactured bottle is refilled using product from the same “brand”, only the batch number will differ. Batch traceability is a safeguard for hotel customers, hoteliers, and the manufacturer. Traceability is lost if different batches are mixed and if a product is decanted into unbranded dispensers, the legislation requirements are still applicable.
The labour costs that are associated with refilling is rarely considered. When best practices are followed, the cost benefits for refillable compared to non-refillable are in-fact minimal. Both refillable and non-refillable bulk solutions will deliver considerable operational cost benefits over single dose products.
In the hospitality industry, customer wellbeing is paramount; to safeguard this when considering a refillable solution, ‘best practices’ should be adopted. They include installing a system or bracket which prevents public access to the filling point of the dispenser, sterilising the dispensers between occupancy, refilling in a sterile environment and sterilising the bottles between batches. Organisation is key, install a program to change bottles every three to six months and traceable dated records should be kept of batch numbers.
Recently there was a video on social media which went viral, with over 730,000 views, the video explained why you should avoid refillable bathroom toiletries in hotels. The reasoning was that these can be opened, and the previous guest could have put anything in from hair colour, hair remover, bodily fluids to bleach. Who carries the liability?
At GFL, we want our customers to have choice. Nobody is better positioned than the hotelier to make informed decisions about their business. Our anti-tamper bracket system is specifically designed to restrict general public access to the filling point. This is only accessible with a housekeeper’s key. We have created a range of refillable pumps, sealed non-refillable pumps and sealed cartridge solutions. All our solutions are manufactured from fully recyclable 100% rPET at our Milan factory which is powered using 100% renewable energy.
