Hotel Refillable Toiletry Dispensers May Be More Bacteria-filled Than You Think, Study Finds

""We started doing our own research and came across the work of Dr. Gerba and the work he did on dispensers in public restrooms," Shawn Seipler, CEO of Clean the World, shared in a statement with Green Lodging News. "What would happen if the same happened in the bathroom of a hotel room? That led us to commission the study. We are driving toward reducing plastic. Let's make sure we are doing it the right way.""

"To see where things stood, the team took 82 samples from shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hand soap, and lotion containers across 40 rooms inside 20 separate hotels. Of the 82 samples, the team found 100 percent had some level of contamination. Sixty-three of those bottles also showed bacterial levels exceeding 1,000 colony-forming units per gram of product, while 40 exceeded 10,000. As the research noted, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition states that for all "non-eye-area products," counts should not be greater than 1,000."

U.S. hotels produce nearly 289,700 tonnes of waste annually, with single-use amenities contributing substantially. Seventy-five percent of global travelers prefer hotels with eco-friendly amenities and 43 percent would pay more for them. Refillable dispensers are promoted to reduce plastic and waste. A 2019 analysis sampled 82 dispenser products across 40 rooms in 20 hotels and found contamination in every sample; 63 samples exceeded 1,000 colony-forming units per gram and 40 exceeded 10,000. The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition recommends counts for non-eye-area products not exceed 1,000. Hygiene concerns may prompt guests to bring personal amenities unless dispensers are properly managed.

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