Environmental fines checking-in to a hotel near you The hospitality industry was recently introduced to one of the first of what we believe to be many environmental fines to target the industry. Ritz-Carlton, one of the luxury brands under the Marriott flag, was ordered to pay more than half million dollars in fines due to unlawful disposal of hazardous waste. Now we aren’t talking about barrels of nuclear waste being dumped into the Pacific Ocean. The hotel brand allegedly illegally disposed of hazardous waste in the trash and illegally transported it to local landfills that were not permitted to receive such waste. The waste that was found to be disposed of illegally were aerosols, batteries, cleaning agents, electronics, flammable liquids and other “reactive, toxic and corrosive materials.” Those materials could be anything from used gel chafing fuel cans that your Food and Beverage team can be discarding to used cleaning products and TV remote batteries from the housekeeping teams.
legislation to curb excessive credit card swipe fees introduced in the senate Interchange or “swipe” fees that restaurants incur to process credit card transactions are often the third highest operating expense behind food and labor. Lack of competition in the network processing sector has allowed these fees to surge. A bill introduced in the Senate would inject competition into that marketplace, helping to reign in those costs. Introduced by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL), Judiciary Committee Chairman, and Richard Marshall (R-KS), the Credit Card Competition Act of 2022 would allow restaurants and other merchants to choose which network processes their credit card transactions. Currently, two major networks dominate this space. Competition created by additional networks could help drive down fees that restaurants and customers pay. According to the Merchants Payments Coalition (MPC), swipe fees cost businesses, including restaurants, $77.5 billion in 2021. The top two processors account for nearly 576 million credit cards, and approximately $3.49 trillion was transacted on these cards in the U.S. in 2021, according to the Federal Reserve. Congress regulated fees associated with debit card transactions more than a decade ago in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. It included an amendment by Durbin that expanded competition in the debit card payment processing system and placed caps on debit card interchange fees. The Credit Card Competition
Act of 2022 would do the same for credit cards. “Credit card swipe fees inflate the prices that consumers pay for groceries and gas…,” said Durbin in a statement announcing the legislation’s introduction. “Bringing real competition to credit card networks will help reduce swipe fees and hold down costs for Main Street merchants and their customers.” “When it comes to Main Street vs Wall Street, I’ll choose Main Street every time,” said Marshall. “Convenience stores, gas stations and other small businesses in Kansas are being taken advantage of… at a time when they, and the communities they serve, are grappling with crippling inflation and staring down the barrel of a looming recession. Competition is the heartbeat of capitalism and that is what our bill will create, competition.” In conjunction with a May 2022 Senate hearing that examined the effect of swipe fees on businesses (as well as other barriers to competition in credit and debit card systems), the Association detailed how swipe fees hamper restaurants and small businesses from prospering.
You might be asking yourself, “How do I make sure my hotel company isn’t next?”. Start with conducting a waste audit for each property and the results will provide you with a benchmark of your current processes. Having this knowledge will allow you to identify inefficiencies within your waste program and understand where your opportunities are for improvement. In addition of understanding what waste is being disposed, you can also evaluate the size of container that you have at each location and adjust accordingly as needed. This can result in monthly savings by downsizing your waste container in combination of sorting and disposing of your hazardous waste properly. These results can also lead to additional operational efficiencies throughout your properties. These fines show that ignorance of EPA rules will lead to an additional focus on the hospitality industry. If you were to look at previous hazardous waste fines issued, research will show that many companies in the retail markets were targeted one-by-one over the past decade which resulted in settlements for over twenty million dollars. As the hospitality industry continues recovery from the pandemic, half a million-dollar fines are not something in the budget for many hoteliers. As hotel guests think sustainable travel is vital, being transparent of your waste programs will have a positive influence on potential guests. The benefits from consulting with a partner to establish a world class hazardous waste management program will result in limiting potential violations and fines, protecting brand image, and boosting your company’s environmental sustainability program are just a few reasons.
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The South Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association and the National Restaurant Association are working with the MPC and other consumer trade organizations to garner more support for the legislation in both chambers of Congress.
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October 2022 • SCRLA.org
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