One and a half months after Beijing Tourism Group (BTG) said it would no longer provide free toiletries in its 13 hotels, toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs, soap, bath foam and shampoo are still available in some of them, according to Xinhua News Agency on August 23.

The drive, announced by BTG on June 5 and aiming to reduce waste and help protect the environment, was joined by more than 150 hotels in the capital.

A representative of BTG's Jianguo Hotel named Zhang said one third of their guests had asked for complimentary toiletries. Though they agreed with the idea of not providing them, they felt inconvenienced that all had been stopped at the same time.

Jinglun Hotel, a four-star BTG hotel, scrapped the provision of toothbrush and paste while still giving complimentary soap and shampoo.

"To meet customers' needs, 13 star-rated BTG hotels are still providing soap, shampoo and bath foam," said Wang from BTG's operations department.

Yang Xiaodong, member of Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, has proposed three times at their sessions to reduce disposable toiletries in star-rated hotels.

"Beijing has 3 million temporary residents each day," said Yang. "Assuming half a million stay in hotels, the amount of complimentary toiletries consumed by them will be huge. We should get used to bringing our own."

Besides promoting environmental protection, he hoped the government would adopt and implement measures to stop all provision of disposable toiletries.

Beijing Tourism Administration (BTA) said all star-rated hotels have stopped using plastic packaging thinner than 2 millimeters, and it has proposed to the National Tourism Administration that environmentally friendly measures be included in state standards for hotels' star rating.

According to the BTA, reducing disposable toiletries is only a part of its "Green Resource Saving Project," which also focuses on saving water, electricity, gas and fuel.

(China.org.cn by Li Shen, August 26, 2005)