Originally Posted by
Chewie
I checked into the Marriott in Berlin on Monday, they didn't have the lemongrass and citrus aromatherapy facial soap that I like from 2/3rds of the other Marriott hotels. I had to settle for lavender and ginger.
I feel your pain.
While I do realize complaining about styrofoam is, as a friend of mine who is presently a visitor in the US from another country often says, a first world problem, in fairness, it's not quite at the level of having to use a different flavor of soap. Styrofoam never decomposes, nor can it be recycled, as opposed to the paper cups. Nor is it it reusable, like ceramic mugs. It's also widely believed to cause cancer, especially when heated. And don't get me started about the employees who make this stuff. I went to high school with many kids whose fathers had passed away from black lung. Working making styrofoam, a pretty much unnecessary product, shouldn't likely expose workers to such a high chance of future health issues. Styrene's main benefit is it's cheap. The message the hotel sends is it's cheap and wasteful when it chooses the cost cutter over avoiding a likely carcinogen. That seems odd for a company that brags about being 100% smoke free in the US. It'd be a different story if there was another option. Instead, it was choose cancer or skip coffee.
From Wikipedia