Don’t Believe This Press Release
Verify for yourself: Pineapple Hospitality’s new line of ERPTM* guest amenities are independently tested and proven to be truly biodegradable**.
When it comes to product claims of being “green,” it’s best to take an approach espoused by former President Ronald Reagan in the days of the Cold War: “Trust, but verify.”
When a manufacturer or marketer says a product is “all-natural,” “organic,” and/ or “biodegradable,”
we all want to believe it’s true. But years of experience have taught those who specialize in this field to dig a little deeper and examine the evidence before we can be sure.
That’s why the new fully biodegradable packaging of Concept Amenities’ Environmentally Responsible Products (ERP™)* guest amenities are built on a campaign of complete transparency. Now available through Pineapple Hospitality, the premier distributor of "Green" Hotel Products and Marketing Programs for the Hospitality Industry, ERP™ is a complete range of truly biodegradable guest amenities made with EcoPure® — an organic-based, enzyme additive that renders common plastics biodegradable when discarded in landfills. EcoPure® breaks down the molecular structure of polymers to allow microbial action to take place. This can occur under anaerobic (landfill) and aerobic (compost) conditions.
“When we say Environmentally Responsible Products packaging is completely biodegradable, you shouldn’t believe us just because we say it’s so!” notes Gary Coward, Senior Vice President for Concept Amenities. “There are far too many unsubstantiated claims of guest amenities being sustainable, compostable or renewable, out in the marketplace. What we’re saying is that you should get complete verification of any statements like these being made by suppliers — this equates to ‘Biodegradable
Transparency.’ The truth in buying truly biodegradable guest amenities lies with the buyers asking the correct questions of all suppliers selling ‘green’ products and the suppliers, in turn, providing independent documents to substantiate all of their ‘green product’ claims.
“We believe in Biodegradable Transparency: Our products have been tested and approved by independent third-party verification.** If any hotel operator or guest wants to see our data, that’s fine. If they want to see samples and run their own ASTM D5511-02 tests, we’ll supply the ERPTM samples, too. If you ask many other amenity manufacturers and marketers if they’ll do the same, the answer is usually, ‘No,’” Coward says.
What often happens is companies create a product with the best intentions to be Earth-friendly. For example, many products are being manufactured using a “biodegradable in compost” cornstarch-based material. This is good because it’s a naturally occurring product. But the problem is the product is only biodegradable if it is placed in a specialized industrial composting facility, which can be few and far between. Additionally, the cornstarch-based bottles cannot be recycled with plastics, nor will they biodegrade in landfills. In other cases, there is a little plastic mixed into the packaging, which means many composting facilities won’t accept it. In the end, the products often end up in a regular landfills, where they will sit for hundreds of years — just like 95 percent of all plastic bottles.
“Yes, it’s great that 5 percent of plastic bottles are recycled. But realistically, an estimated 3.4 billion plastic bottles and caps from U.S. hotels alone will end up in landfills each year,” says Coward. “With ERP™, we know that if a hotel has a recycling program, the bottles either can be recycled or will biodegrade if disposed of in landfill — in just a few years, rather than 400-plus years from now.”
In full and transparent disclosure, Coward even admits that he doesn’t know if the ERP™ products will be completely gone after five months or five years — as objects don’t biodegrade in a completely linear fashion. But what he knows for certain is independent testing indicates the right steps are occurring on a molecular level, breaking down hydrocarbons into fatty acids then to biomass, allowing the man-made polymers to return to the cycle of nature.
“We certainly have a long way to go on this green path, but we’re getting better every day,” says Coward. “Currently we use 10 to 40 percent recycled plastic in the front-end manufacturing of our Eco.Fresh tubes. Is this the best we can do? No, and we are always striving to manufacture with less negative impact on the environment. And in 12 months from now, we will be significantly better.”
“We are very excited about these new product lines and the truly biodegradable packaging,” says Ray Burger,” President of Pineapple Hospitality. “Not only do the Environmentally Responsible Products from Concept Amenities live up to their name and have the data behind it to prove it, but the products themselves are rich and luxurious, and make a great addition to any hotel’s guest amenity program.”
The ERP™ guest amenities products include soaps, shampoos, conditions, lotions, shower caps and more. They currently come in two distinct brands.
Ecossential Elements are inspired by the wonders and freshness of nature. Help guests get in touch with their environmental spirit with this range of skin and hair care products enriched with organic Aloe Vera and botanical extracts that cleanse, purify and reveal people’s natural beauty.
Eco.Fresh is a complete range of guest amenity essentials designed to cater to all personal needs. This comprehensive line up allows you the option to select the right sizes and packaging to suit your needs. Guests refresh and revive while they cleanse with an invigorating citrus fragrant sensation. Liquids and soaps have been formulated with essential ingredients to maintain moisture for clean skin and healthy hair.The ultimate goal of ERP™ products is to eliminate or minimize sulfates, parabens, DMDM hydantoin, propylene glycol, DEA & TEA, and mineral oil in their products. All finished products are certified cruelty free and are never tested on animals.
Eventually, Concept Amenities will convert all of its products to use EcoPure. Already, a number of hotels have made the switch. The Luxor in Las Vegas was the first hotel to feature them in guestrooms and America’s Best Value Inns, with more than 60,000 guestrooms, have converted to ERP™, bio-amenities. And others such as the Best Western and Choice Hotels in Australia have come on board.
Partnering with Pineapple Hospitality as a distributor will only broaden the range of users.
“Being represented by Pineapple Hospitality is one of the best things that we can do to help us bring credibility and integrity to the industry,” says Coward. “Words like ‘pure’, ‘natural’, ‘green’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘biodegradable’ have been weakened by overuse or downright misuse by ‘green wash’ marketing claims. Working with Pineapple Hospitality and Ray Burger will help us give the power back.”
*ERP™ is the product trademark for Environmentally Responsible Products provided exclusively by Concept Amenities.
**ISO DIS15985 & ASTM D 5511-02 standard test performance to determine biodegradation of plastic packaging materials under hi-solids anaerobic - digestion simulating landfill conditions, independently conducted and analyzed by Northeast Laboratories Inc, CT.
About Pineapple Hospitality
Headquartered in Saint Charles, Missouri, Pineapple Hospitality™ brings fresh ideas to hospitality guests’ doors and owner/operators’ bottom lines - including FreshStay® (www.freshstay.com), EcoRooms & EcoSuites (www.EcoRooms.com) Environmentally Sensitive Amenities™, EO®, Earth Perfect, Earth Simple, ecossential elements, Save Your World, Sonoma Soap Co., Pharmacopia, and greenSPA™ amenities, AVIVA and WAVE dispensers, Energy Efficient Lighting and Controls, Custom Linen & Towel Re-Use Programs, Green Earth Key Cards, Sleeves and Folders, Energy Management Systems and Controls, High Performance showerheads, , Zero Odor, and dozens of other products and programs. For more information, please visit www.pineapplehospitality.net, or call us at 636-922-2285.
