A newspaper left at the guestroom door every morning is a fabulous courtesy. But the tendency not to recycle the newspapers is not a great courtesy to the Earth and to future generations. I would like to promote better recycling of these newspapers.
When my family and I stay in hotels, we all enjoy the newspaper. My stepfather and mother read the front sections, I like the sports, and my sisters fight over the crossword puzzle. As we leave the hotels, the hotel cleaning carts are often already in the hotel hallways as the staff sets up the rooms for the new day. The newspapers are often tossed into the large trash bag on the cleaning cart along with the rest of the garbage.
When you think about how many newspapers hotels across the country are putting needlessly into the regular trash, it’s really astounding. Rather than have that huge amount of excess trash end up in landfills, it would be great to establish a better recycling routine.
The Newspaper Association of America has reported that more than 69 percent of old newspapers in the United States were recovered and recycled in 2005. It is clear that Americans are in the habit of recycling their newspapers in their normal routine, which makes it more compelling to establish a better practice for when they are away. Guests would presumably be amenable to undertaking a task that is already part of their daily home routine.
Raise Newspaper Recycling Awareness
I believe that a predominant reason for the failure to recycle hotel newspapers is that guests leave the paper scattered and in disarray in their rooms. This makes it a timely task for hotel staff to refold the paper in order to fit it in a recycling pile on their carts. As time is money and the rooms have to be done promptly, the additional time and effort required for recycling is understandably not undertaken. An easy, cost-efficient method to end the “no-recycle cycle” is to raise awareness for hotel guests.
Most people are environment minded and don’t like to litter. They take the time to properly dispose of something as small as a gum wrapper. The size of a whole newspaper in comparison to that is massive, and I believe that once alerted to an easy solution, guests would be eager to help recycle this large amount of paper. A simple Post-it-type sticker on the top of each newspaper, asking hotel guests to put the newspaper back together for easy recycling, would work wonders.
Just as the concept of reusing towels and linens has had an immensely positive impact on reducing water usage through a simple awareness campaign, this newspaper recycling practice would be extremely easy to administer, virtually no cost, and have an excellent result. I know this could work and make a huge difference!
By being environmentally conscious, a hotel can be a role model to others within the industry and make an overall difference in our world.
David Steinmetz is a ninth grader based in Woodbridge, Conn. He can be reached at teamstein@aol.com.
