Plastic is everywhere — even in hotel rooms. Since the 1970s, people have come to expect travel-sized toiletries during hotel stays, but starting in 2025, that will change.
The Single-Use Plastic Bottle Act is part of Illinois’s broader effort to reduce plastic waste, especially in the Great Lakes. Sponsored by Democratic Sen. Laura Fine, the bill was signed into law on Aug. 9, 2024.
The act will require all Illinois hotels with 50 or more rooms to stop distributing travel-sized personal care products in rooms as of July 1, 2025, and those with less than 50 rooms by Jan. 1, 2026. Some chains like Hilton are already phasing out mini bottles in favor of bulk dispensers to reduce waste.
“Nobody wants to be the plastic bottle police,” Fine, whose district includes several suburbs north of Chicago, told The DePaulia. “For the hotel and motel industries, not only does this look good for them because they’re being greener — but it also saves them money.”
She said Illinois legislators worked closely with the Great Lakes Legislative Caucus and the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association to fine-tune the bill, which had widespread support across the aisle — including from Democratic Rep. Kam Buckner.
“I think about my son who’s two and a half years old and the fact that we’ve got to do all that we can do to leave (the next generation) with a better environmental and climate situation,” Buckner, whose district includes Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, said.
“The passage of this act reflects that Illinois has a commitment to protecting the environment and mitigating the harmful effects of plastic waste,” Buckner said.
While the primary goal of the legislation is to curb plastic waste, some advocates are concerned about how the policy might impact vulnerable communities, including those who are unhoused.
Homelessness in the U.S. rose in 2023. Officials at Lincoln Park Community Services (LPCS), a 24-hour homeless shelter in Chicago, said they served over 4,000 guests across two facilities last year.
Along with housing and healthcare support, LPCS offers guests care kits which consist entirely of pre-packaged and travel-sized items. “For the convenience of people who are mobile and for sanitation purposes, those (smaller-sized) products are much more valued and preferred,” Cheryl Hamilton-Hill, the organization’s CEO, said.
Items that are in high demand at the shelter include shampoo, conditioner, individual bars of soap, razors, feminine products and diverse hair products. Hamilton-Hill says providing guests with their own products helps maintain a sense of individuality and self-agency during difficult times.
“It’s better to hand someone their own personal items so they’re not in contact with communal spaces of products,” Hamilton-Hill said. “It’s important to provide ownership to something — and that’s important.”
Travel-sized bottles with shampoo and other personal care products are still available at pharmacies and other retailers, especially since the U.S. Transportation Security Administration limits liquids carried onto airplanes to 3.4 ounces.
Illinois’ push to reduce plastic waste goes beyond hotel toiletries, with additional efforts like the ban on polystyrene (styrofoam) products.
As the state works to protect the environment at the legislative level, advocates on the ground level — such as Lydia Stazen, executive director of the Ruff Institute of Global Homelessness — urged lawmakers and the public to consider the impact on unhoused people and to help with solutions.
Illinois’s environmental agenda may pose challenges for facilities like LPCS and advocates like Stazen, who emphasized that access to personal care products for the unhoused is about more than cleanliness — it’s about dignity and ownership.
“Access to hygiene products is important for anyone experiencing homelessness,” Stazen said. “We need to ensure that everyone has a home of their own where they can store all the products they need.”
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- ‘A perfect storm’: Migrants face legal barriers, paused services and a 60-day limit at shelters as the city’s budget rapidly dwindles
- From Venezuela to Lincoln Park, migrant teens find camaraderie and belonging through high school baseball
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