At some sustainability-focused hotels, sweating the small stuff makes a big difference.

Hans Pfister, president and co-founder of the Cayuga Collection, has seen firsthand how something as small as a plastic straw can add up to a big problem. Some months back, he organized a company retreat to “a beautiful island in the Gulf of Nicoya (of the Pacific shore of Costa Rica) called San Lucas, where we picked up 30 bags of plastic that had washed up on the beach.”

The project reinforced the need for an initiative that Pfister launched about seven years ago to eliminate all single-use plastic straws at all of the Cayuga Collection’s eight luxury sustainable hotels in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

“We were just sick and tired of the plastic straws and finding them on the beach, so we said, ‘We’ve got to do something about this,’” Pfister said.

Other hotels and hotel brands have taken the same steps to reduce plastic waste on property.

The Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa in Lahaina, Hawaii, announced in August 2017 that it was eliminating all single-use plastic straws, and claims to be the first hotel in Hawaii to do so.

Bangkok-based Minor Hotels announced in December its plan starting 1 January to eliminate plastic straws at all of its hotels in Asia, which includes 32 properties under its Anantara Hotels & Resorts brand, 11 under its AVANI brand, two Four Seasons and one JW Marriott. The company stated in a news release that it is the “first major hotel brand” to take that step.

“With the rest of the world promising to follow suit soon, we thought we would try it at home first,” said John Edward Roberts, Anantara’s group director of conservation and sustainability, by email. “Also, of course, we recognize that much of the ocean plastic comes from Asian rivers, so this is arguably where we can do the most good.”