As the demand for sustainability grows, the hotel industry is being challenged to meet guests’ increasing demands. According to a 2021 study from Statista, 81% of travelers surveyed said they plan to choose a sustainable accommodation option in the coming year.

Public Goods, a producer of sustainable personal care products for the hotel industry and a D2C provider of good-for-you home essentials, offers a line of toxin-free personal care products in bioplastic packaging, some of which is reusable or refillable, for hoteliers looking to meet guests’ growing sustainability preferences.

Chris Breen, Head of Partnerships at Public Goods says “Eco-friendly ingredients are a priority, but the most important is the product [packaging] material and how we use it. For example, small-format products create quite a lot of waste and are generally made with virgin plastic.”

Public Goods’ first launch were personal care products formulated with toxin-free ingredients in bottles made from sugarcane-based plastics, as well as biodegradable, tree-free toilet paper and toothbrushes made from bamboo. “Since then, we’ve only expanded on that, with products that are refillable, reusable, and made from recycled materials,” says Public Goods co-founder and Head of Product Development Michael Ferchak. “We also partner with Eden Reforestation Projects to plant a tree for every order launched.”

Public Goods uses a white bullet-round bottle with a black cap or dispensing pump and minimal copy to package its shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hand soap, moisturizer, and lotion. The refillable 12-oz containers are high-density polyethylene, approximately 90% of which comes from Braskem’s I’m Green sugarcane-based PE. The company also offers some products in 3-oz travel-size bottles, also made from Braskem’s bioplastic.

“The benefit to sugarcane-based plastics is that it doesn’t require petroleum to produce, therefore it does not support the petroleum industry. Furthermore, Braskem has research showing that production of sugarcane plastic is actually carbon neutral since the production of the sugarcane used as the raw material removes carbon from the atmosphere.” said Ferchak.

Although caps are currently made from virgin polypropylene, Ferchak claims the company is working on transitioning all of its plastic componentry to post-consumer recycled material. “Back then, it was not possible to get recycled plastic in a pure white, which is why we opted to go with I’m Green PE,” explains Ferchak. “However, the PCR industry has improved lately, and it is possible now to get pure white PCR. As such, we’ve recently made a decision that it’s better to reuse existing plastic than to introduce new plastic into the environment, even I’m Green PE. So we are in the process of transitioning our products over to PCR.”

Refills for personal care products come in a 34-oz flexible pouch. Public Goods felt it was best to prioritize reducing the amount of plastic it used, as on a per-ounce basis of liquid product, the refillable plastic bottles use 5.4-times more plastic than the refills. Nonetheless, Ferchek says Public Goods is working with its packaging vendors to transition to curbside-recyclable plastic pouches.

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