ORLANDO (August 14, 2018) – Rosen Hotels & Resorts announces today that it will eliminate the use of plastic straws in its more than 26 restaurants and in-room dining at its nine hotels, all located in Orlando, by January 2019.

Effective immediately, plastic straws will be provided only upon request to guests of the hotel restaurants. The company will transition to using eco-friendly paper straws as early as this fall.

Rosen Hotels & Resorts joins the pledge with Florida Green Lodging through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to “skip the straw” and estimates it will eliminate the use of 2,900,888 plastic straws annually. According to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 500 million plastic straws are used in the U.S. daily, enough to fill 125 school buses.

“As a continued effort within our sustainability programs, we have taken the pledge to eliminate the use of plastic straws,” said Rosen Hotels & Resorts’ founder and owner Harris Rosen. “We will continue to look at all areas where we can potentially improve upon or remove all plastics from our environment to do our part to combat this rising global crisis. At times, this may cost more than the alternative. However, we do this because it’s the right thing to do.”

DeeDee Baggitt, Director of Engineering & Facilities, Rosen Hotels & Resorts, and who is the steward of the company’s sustainable initiatives adds “We are actively evaluating our plastic usage, looking for eco-friendly options that are as effective as the current products.”

Rosen Hotels & Resorts is a dedicated leader of environmental practices in the hospitality industry. The company’s three convention hotels were the first in Central Florida and in the state to receive the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Green Lodging Two Palm designation in 2007 and Three Palm designation in 2009 for remarkable conservation practices. In 2009, owner Harris Rosen received the Legacy Award, Sustainable Florida’s highest honor.

In 2012, the company built its first LEED Certified building, the 12,000 square-foot Rosen Medical Center, a Place for Healing and Wellness. In 2015, the company’s three convention hotels – Rosen Shingle Creek, Rosen Centre and Rosen Plaza – earned the coveted APEX Award, the meetings industry’s first standards designation of environmentally sustainable meetings, created in a partnership of the Convention Industry Council (CIC) and ASTM International.

For more information, visit RosenHotels.com and RosenGreenMeetings.com.