We have all done it - we’ve all taken hotel gels shampoos and creams home with us at the end of out holidays. But not any more. By 2030, guests staying in hotels across the European Union will see significant changes in their rooms following the adoption of new regulations regarding sustainability, which will affect one of the most common items found in hotel rooms.
This will put an end to a very common practice among tourists: taking hotel shampoos and shower gels home. There will no longer be single-use sachets of gel and shampoo in hotels. The European Union has approved Regulation (EU) 2025/40, the main aim of which is to reduce single-use sachets in member states and commit to a much more sustainable policy; however, it should be noted that it came into force last year, although it will be progressively implemented from 2026 onwards.
Under this regulation, hotels will no longer be able to provide the typical toiletries that were left for guests in their rooms. The small bottles of shampoo, shower gel and other “amenities” were widely used by all hotel guests, who would pack them in their suitcases to take them home, but from now on they will have to say goodbye to these containers and will not be able to take them as “souvenirs”, as from 1 January 2030 they will be completely banned; therefore, single-use formats are bidding farewell forever to hotels in Spain and other European countries.
With the end of single-use sachets, hotels will be obliged to provide guests with ‘amenities’ in the form of refillable dispensers, meaning customers will no longer be able to take these hygienic containers home. Shampoo, shower gel, lotions and other toiletries will be provided in this format from 2030, all as part of legislation aimed at reducing the amount of plastic in the European Union.
Most European hotels have now switched over to bulk-sized dispensers in order to reduce plastic waste, with many only offering shampoo, body wash, or two-in-one shower gels. In addition to the travel-sized toiletry ban, hair conditioner also just isn’t as popular among Europeans as it is in the U.S. One 2019 survey found that 84 percent of women use hair conditioner in the U.S. On the flip side, just 48 percent of women across Italy and Spain and 29 percent of women in France use the product, per a 2017 Kantar Worldpanel survey.