Green Box

Helping hotels become circular

Industrial design
Circular economy
Art direction

Challenge

Every year, tens of millions of amenity kits are thrown away by hotel chains. But do we really need those items to last forever after only being used for a few minutes? For instance, a normal toothbrush takes more than 300 years to degrade in nature, and even then some chemical components and microplastics will never fully reintegrate into the environment.

The hospitality industry has the chance to reinvent itself post-COVID-19 and sustainability should be at the heart of what businesses do. As Green Box shows, you don’t have to make big changes to have a big impact. Something as small as an amenity kit can really make a difference

Result

Green Box is an amenity kit fully integrated into a circular business model. The kit of accessories is paired in each room with a disposable bin. After use, guests will sort items between compostable or non-compostable materials, creating awareness for new kinds of waste streams.

The White parts, designed to be separated and not composted, will be disposed of with the general waste. While the Green items, which are compostable, will be managed in an industrial composting facility together with the rest of the organic waste from the hotel. Made out of recycled PLA and plant-based pigments, the green parts will become biogas and soil after 10 days in an industrial anaerobic digestion plant. The energy created by a kit could power a standard LED light bulb for a day. The organic matter left could be used as a soil fertilizer.