While some items, like medical equipment, need to be packaged in plastic for health and safety reasons, a lot of the plastic packaging that we see every day is unnecessary or excessive. This is especially true when it comes to single-serving products. One Redditor shared an example from a hotel where they were staying.

What's happening?

The user shared their photo in the r/Anticonsumption subreddit, with the "plastic waste" flair. "The hotel I'm staying at has these single-use salt & pepper shakers," they said. 

The photo shows two small, pointed plastic salt and pepper shakers with ring attachments at the tops to make them easier to hold, sitting in a dedicated plastic holder. Judging by the size — significantly smaller than the egg also visible in the photo — they are clearly designed to be single-use.

"If they don't want a set of shakers per table, why not use the small paper bags?" asked the baffled original poster.

"Why? This has to cost more than just using refillable containers," agreed a commenter. "What a stupid concept."

Why is a single-use salt shaker important?

While this is a tiny amount of plastic waste on its own, we are not talking about an isolated incident. This was happening in a hotel, so multiply this one set of salt and pepper shakers by all of the rooms and guests in the establishment. Multiply the number of guests in a day by the number of days in a year. Then multiply that by the number of hotels and restaurants adopting the practice. The result is a massive amount of unnecessary plastic waste.

That plastic comes from polluting fossil fuels, and when it is discarded, it takes up in landfills — assuming it's thrown away correctly. If not, it can end up as litter in the environment. Even in a landfill, as it breaks down, it can shed microplastics and emit methane.

What could the hotel do about this?

As the original poster pointed out, there are already single-serving paper sachets of salt and pepper for exactly this situation. Paper is much better for the environment, especially if it is made from recycled materials or sustainably harvested plant matter.

There is also the option of using refillable salt and pepper shakers, although some commentators speculated that those might be subject to theft.

What can I do about plastic waste?

Whenever possible, support companies that opt for more eco-friendly packaging and other environmentally conscious solutions. More and more hotels are choosing green alternatives to traditional products and practices, like this hotel that is bottling its own water from the air in glass bottles instead of giving plastic-bottled water to the guests.

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