All hotels in Illinois with 50 or more guestrooms are now required 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 was recently signed by Governor Pritzker, encouraging the use of innovative, reusable solutions while reducing the amount of plastic waste in the lakes (the source of drinking water for 40 million people) and serving as a model for the Great Lakes region to follow.

More than 22 million pounds of plastic pollution end up in the Great Lakes every year, and these plastics never fully biodegrade. They instead break down into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics, and research has shown high amounts of these microplastics in all five Great Lakes, posing a risk to human health, as well as wildlife.

“This new Illinois law is a big step in the right direction, driving innovation and reducing single-use plastics,” said Andrea Densham, senior policy advisor, Alliance for the Great Lakes. “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 Illinois legislature is also considering other bills to address plastic pollution, such as preventing microplastic pollution with washing machine filters and banning foam foodware.