Incentivizing Environmental Responsibility

Sometimes it can be difficult to be environmentally responsible. My wife and I are dedicated recyclers, but in our apartment complex we have no recycling, even though the City of Los Angeles provides the service free of charge. Our property manager feels that it would attract vagrants, so he declines the service for all the residents, most of who would welcome such a convenience.

I've been traveling for my work recently, but I've never been a regular traveler. My life is far from George Clooney's in Up in the Air, so for some of you this might be old news. As is the case with many hotels, every morning I receive a copy of USA Today. That's a really nice service, and no doubt a lot of people take advantage of it. I however don't read it. There are a variety of reasons, but probably the biggest one is that I get my news from various other sources around the internet.

Last week as the papers piled up in my room (if I don't take the paper myself, it's pushed under my door by the cleaning staff), I figured this week I'd tell the front desk that I'd prefer not to get it. I thought: why not save a tree, I'm not going to read it anyway. Even if it's recycled, I'd rather avoid the energy it took to make the paper in the first place. 

The woman at the front desk seemed surprised at my request; as if I was the first person to ask for such a thing. And maybe I was, but that seems unlikely. She mentioned that the papers are free, and I'm still not sure if she meant that I wouldn't be charged for them, or that the hotel wasn't even being charged for them. I'm sure that both are true, but that's beside the point. She took down my name and room number and wrote it on a post-it. This morning there was another copy of USA Today outside my room. I can't say I'm surprised.

But that's not all. I don't know about you, but at my house the floors and linens are not cleaned every day. I generally feel that I live in a clean apartment, and cleaning every day has never been a part of that. Of course at hotels the situation is quite different. There are many reasons why after only a single night, someone may want their hotel room cleaned for–reasons that are more likely to occur in a hotel room than private home. And I think it's right that hotels have a policy of cleaning every occupied room every night.

But many times, especially for business travelers like myself who barely use the room for anything more than showering, some computer work and a little television, cleaning the room every day (and changing the linens) is really far too often. I don't think I've ever dirtied towels or linens or made a mess so bad that I felt like I NEEDED the room cleaned during my stay. There have been times when the services was appreciated, but never so bad that it was required. No I don't have kids, and again I'm not suggesting there aren't valid reasons, just that so far in my life I haven't come across any of them.

To solve this problem, I leave the "do not disturb" tag on the door all day. This practice generally works. This evening when I got back to my room (the 3rd night of 4 that I'm staying here) I see a plastic bag hanging on my doorknob. In it were 2 fresh sets of towels (bath towel, face towel, and washcloth), 2 new packages of soap, and new bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and moisturizer. So, I guess the problem is not solved. Sigh. 

I think the common problem here is lack of proper motivation. My apartment manager is more concerned with the possibility of vagrants and what their presence might do to the safety of the tenants, not to mention the overall safety of the neighborhood (nevermind that other buildings on our street do have recycling). Those are valid concerns, but they lie in direct contrast with what would be a more environmentally responsible act, and one that would align with the wishes of the majority of tenants in the building. But the decision isn't ours to make.

Regarding the hotel situation, I'm sure that USA Today gives those papers out for free, because that increases their circulation, which in turn increases what they can charge for advertising. In fact perhaps they even pay a fee to the hotel for the privilege of being the sole distributor, and the hotel actually makes a small amount from the service. I'm no expert, but it's clear how my request to not receive a paper would fall on completely deaf ears. Or more accurately, it's not that someone isn't listening, it's that there's just nobody to handle that type of request, since it's in nobody's interest to deal with it. Nobody's except Mother Nature, but she's clearly not lining anyone's pockets.

And I'm sure that the person responsible for cleaning my room is only trying to do the best job possible, probably without even a thought that I might have left the tag on the door intentionally for two nights in a row. But the point remains: there's no incentive for this person to even take that mental step; certainly not from the hotel and in fact there may be serious disincentives.

These are only a few examples, but they are emblematic of our culture (at least here in the United States) and they highlight the truth that real environmental change will not occur unless we change the incentives to properly motivate people to act responsibly. My fear is that by the time we get to that point, things will be in really, really bad shape.

Comments

[Amber]

Every hotel I've stayed at within the last decade has had policies of not changing the linens daily unless requested. There were signs that said to put the towels on the floor if you wanted new ones, otherwise they requested guests reuse towels to reduce environmental impact of washing. I've also been asked if I wanted the free paper and declined, so it did not arrive at my door. I've also noticed that if I didn't touch the soap or shampoo, it is not replaced. This has been my experience in both nice and inexpensive hotels. Maybe your hotel just had a unique policy or maybe I've just been lucky in finding more eco friendly hotels.

[jschoenwald]

Many hotels I've stayed at over the last number of years have had the option to reuse the towels, but it certainly hasn't been all of them and probably not even most. I don't recall specifically if I've seen notes about not changing the linens daily but I don't remember seeing that at all. Regarding the newspaper there's really no excuse, so I think the hotel I'm staying at (that would be the Doubletree Philadelphia) is just stupid.

I think all the things you mentioned should be standard operating procedure across the board, and I wouldn't be surprised if California passed a law requiring such measures. If they can ban the use of plastic bags at the grocery store and require that restaurants not serve water unless requested, a something like this can't be far behind. I'd go so far as to limit housecleaning service altogether unless requested, but there are probably some very powerful lobbyists who would not let that happen.

I think maybe you're just staying in awesome hotels, either that or you're staying in normal hotels and I'm staying in crappy ones.