Buffalo Hotels Will Soon Ban These Popular Items

If you’ve got friends or family coming up to visit this summer, and they plan on staying in a hotel in the Buffalo area, it doesn’t matter if it’s a fancy five-star resort or a motel off the highway– they’ll likely find a small assortment of teeny toiletries available to use next to the sink. 

Even if most of us don’t actually use them during our stay, many of us will stuff those mini bottles of shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, or body wash in our suitcases to bring home. Sometimes, they just end up stockpiled in a drawer, but often those tiny toiletries can come in handy! They’re great for keeping in your gym bag for a post-workout rinse, and are a lifesaver when you realize mid-shower that you’re out of shampoo and forgot to run to the drugstore. 

(Our mind goes right to Ross from Friends, and how he always hoarded everything he could whenever he stayed in a hotel.)

Well, if you or your loved ones are traveling to Buffalo this summer and see some of those teeny bottles in your bathroom, grab them while you can— because you won’t be able to for much longer. 

Buffalo Banning Single-Use Toiletries In Hotels

A state bill that is finally beginning in January 2025, will ban small “hospitality personal care products,” like those tiny shampoos and conditioners, throughout hotels with 50 or more rooms in New York, including Buffalo.

Hotels with fewer than 50 rooms are still good to offer the toiletries for now, but by 2026 they’ll have to stop using them as well. 

It comes from a bill that passed in the New York State senate and was signed into law by Governor Hochul back in 2021 as part of an effort to reduce single-use plastic in the state. However, activation of the law was pushed in order to accommodate hotels who ordered tons of individual toiletries during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Instead, you’ll start to see hotels with “communal” bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash that are often strapped to shower walls and by the sink (and as someone who travels often, I’ve already seen this frequently in several hotels across the state). 

It’s not so bad…but I won’t lie, I personally wipe them down with a Clorox wipe first (because you never know how thoroughly they were cleaned after the person before you).