Despite an official requirement to stop the proactive provision of disposable plastic products in hotels, a report unveiled on Thursday has found widespread noncompliance, with star-rated hotels lagging even further behind nonstar-rated establishments.

The report was compiled by the nonprofit Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Wuhu Ecology Center, based on public oversight of hotel disposable plastics and field research, under the guidance of the China Forum of Environmental Journalists.

In a move to curb plastic pollution, the Ministry of Commerce issued a notice in August 2020 requiring star-rated hotels to stop proactively providing disposable plastic products by the end of 2022, with the mandate set to expand to all hotels, guesthouses and homestays by the end of 2025.

A public oversight initiative launched by IPE and its NGO partners in 2024 found, however, that most hotels still proactively provide these disposable products.

By the end of 2025, the hotel plastic reduction watch initiative, which relies on real-time photo reporting from volunteers, had covered 1,867 hotels across 256 cities countrywide. Among them, the proportion of hotels that do not proactively provide disposable toothbrushes and combs stands at 8.4 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively.

Although star-rated hotels were the first to be covered by the mandate, they turned out to be the "laggards", according to the report.

All 40 five-star hotels surveyed were found to proactively provide disposable items.

Data from the 2025 public oversight initiative also showed that the proportion of star-rated hotels not proactively providing disposable toothbrushes and combs is lower than that of non-star-rated hotels.

Ma Jun, founding director of the IPE, pointed to a long-held belief that closely ties the supply of disposables to hotel service standards in China as a major factor hindering star-rated hotels from refraining from providing such items.

The core clients of high-end hotels, including frequent business travelers, are far more sensitive to service details than ordinary guests, he said. Facing intense market competition, high-end hotels widely fear that being the first to stop providing disposable items would affect customer experience and put them at a competitive disadvantage.

Ma also cited "low constraints" faced by star-rated and high-end hotels under the current regulatory system.

Although 16 cities have enacted penalties for proactively providing disposable items, just 280 penalty cases were documented in these cities between 2019 and 2025, nearly all involving small and medium-sized non-star-rated hotels.

Moreover, waste reduction carries relatively low weight in the country's hotel star-rating and green hotel certification systems, he added.

According to the China Hospitality Association, the total number of accommodation facilities in China had reached 570,000 by the end of 2024, with more than 19 million guest rooms.

The association's 2025 report estimated that 73,000 metric tons of disposable plastic products were consumed in the country's accommodation sector in 2020.