Gavin Newsom, California Governor, Officially Bans Small Bottles Of Shampoo, Conditioner, & Soap In Hotels

In a move that climate change activists will surely see as a step in the right direction, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he had signed a ban on the small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and soaps typically found in many hotel rooms, Fast Company reported on Thursday.

Earlier this year, the California state legislature voted to enact the ban on the products, which direct hotels to replace any products in bottles under 12 ounces with either refillable dispensers or with bottles in larger sizes.

Hotels will have time to work to meet the new requirement, as the new statewide statute doesn’t go into effect for about two more years – in 2023. Smaller hotels with less than 50 rooms will have a bit longer – until 2024 – to comply with the new environmentally-focused law.

There has been a nationwide push over the past several years to eliminate or reduce the use of single-use plastic products, which are often difficult to recycle and end up in landfills and clogging waterways, in the name of reducing consumption.

Nationally, the story has been a bit different. The Trump administration has been known for policies that roll back environmental regulations on industries. As The Inquisitr previously reported, eliminating or reducing the usage of single-use plastic straws has been a similar focus nationwide. In a move seemingly poking fun at the limits on plastic straw use, the president’s re-election campaign sold earlier this year Trump-branded plastic straws, which it claimed were reusable and recyclable.

Hotels found in violation of the new California statute would be required to pay up: $500 a first offense and then $2,000 for any future violations. As Fast Company reported, while California is seemingly the first state to ban the single-use soap and other similar products, which guests often take as souvenirs from various hotels, the move is part of a trend started by several hotel chains to eliminate use of the products on their own.

Marriott International Hotels, which include Marriott and Hilton hotels, to name a few, said it would eliminate use of small plastic bottles in its hotel rooms by the end of next year. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which owns several popular hotel chains, similarly announced it would eliminate the use of some 200 million tiny plastic bottles by years end in 2021. As Fast Company noted, Disney also announced that plastic shampoo bottles would disappear from its own cruise ships and resorts worldwide.

The plastic ban wasn’t the only notable legislation that the first-term California governor signed this week. According to The Los Angeles Times, parents in California are now permitted to deliver medical marijuana products to their children at school, so long as the products are not vaped or smoked and that the local school board approves of the usage.