Kristijan Curavić, president of Croatia-based Ocean Alliance, a global initiative related to plastic-free oceans and lakes, supported in countries and tourism players around the world congratulated Illinois Governor Pritzker after he signed the Small Single-Use Plastic Bottle Act into law.
It will require hotels with 50 or more rooms to eliminate the use of small, single-use plastic bottles containing personal care products in individual rooms and public bathrooms beginning July 1, 2025.
By Jan. 1, 2026, all hotels are expected to make this transition. This law encourages the use of innovative reusable solutions while reducing the amount of plastic waste in our lakes — the source of drinking water for 40 million people — and serves as a model for the Great Lakes region to follow.
Curavić said this step is demonstrating a positive development and a first opportunity in the United States. “We would like to invite the governor to showcase his success at our global conference with heads of State planned for 2025.”
“This law makes Illinois a good candidate to become the first certified marine conversation region in the United States, allowed to raise our white flag.”, the Ocean Alliance president added.
“I commend Governor Pritzker, Senator Fine, and the Illinois Legislature for their leadership in addressing the growing problem of single-use plastic,” said Andrea Densham, Senior Policy Advisor for the Alliance for the Great Lakes. “This new Illinois law is a big step in the right direction, driving innovation and reducing single-use plastics.
We must keep advancing stronger laws to reduce plastic production, fix the broken recycling system, move manufacturers and retailers toward using less unnecessary plastic, and shift to reusable alternatives. Now is the time to take the next step by requiring that all washing machines filter out microfibers and banning the use of polystyrene foam containers that pollute our waterways.”
“The Small Single-Use Plastic Bottle Act is exactly what we mean when we say we need upstream solutions. Plastic pollution that ends up in our rivers and the Great Lakes ultimately feeds into the ocean. With tens of millions of visitors staying in Illinois hotels every year, this bill will significantly reduce plastic production and pollution. We are glad to see Illinois take this critical step and hope that other states will follow suit,” said Ocean Conservancy’s Vice President of External Affairs, Jeff Watters, an Illinois native.
“Illinois is a national leader in protecting the environment,” said State Sen. Laura Fine. “With this new law, the hotel industry will join our efforts. By reducing their footprint and opting for more economical and environmentally friendly toiletry options, Illinois’ hotel industry will keep thousands of pounds of plastic out of our landfills and waterways over the years.”
Unrecyclable, single-use plastics are choking the environment. More than 22 million pounds of plastic pollution end up in the Great Lakes every year, and these plastics never fully biodegrade. Instead, they break down into smaller and smaller pieces known as “microplastics.”
Researchers have found stunningly high amounts of these microplastics in all five Great Lakes, which provide drinking water for 40 million people. They’ve found microplastics in Great Lakes fish, drinking water, bottled water, and beer, posing potential threats to human health.
By targeting unnecessary single-use plastics, SB2960 would have ripple effects across multiple sectors, such as reducing the purchase of single-use products, encouraging reusable solutions and sparking business innovation, and preventing costly, unrecyclable plastic waste from filling up local municipal waste systems – where taxpayers bear the burden. These actions also protect our Great Lakes, water, and environment, all at the same time.
The Illinois legislature is also considering several other bills to address plastic pollution, such as legislation that would prevent microplastic pollution with washing machine filters and banning foam food ware.
