This week the hotel chain, with just shy of 400 hotels across Europe, the Americas, and Africa, will announce its intent to have suppliers switch from standard thermoplastics to ones loaded with a special additive that causes thermoplastics to oxo-biodegrade at a controlled rate.
On Wednesday in London officials from NH Hoteles and Symphony Environmental Technologies will discuss the move. The hotel group's suppliers will be using Symphony's Controlled-life d2w plastic for the shampoo bottles, laundry bags, carrier bags, trashcan liners, and branded packaging available in all of its hotels.
Symphony markets and supplies d2w oxo-biodegradable additives. These function by breaking down the carbon-carbon bonds in the plastic, which lowers molecular weight and eventually weakens material strength and other properties, causing it to biodegrade. Stabilizers are employed so that end products last long enough to be useful, with the 'begin biodegrading' timer able to be set from two months up to a few years. The supplier claims this method of degradability trumps standard biodegradable plastics because Symphony's approach does not require that the plastic be in an industrial composting facility to degrade. Plastic loaded with the oxo-biodegradable additive can also be recycled before it degrades.
NH Hoteles, based in Spain, has 399 hotels with over 60,000 rooms in 24 countries across Europe, America, and Africa.
Publically traded small cap Symphony last week announced its first profitable year.
