Issue 50

MAINSTREAM INSPIRATION
More and more hotels in mainstream
hospitality of all sizes throughout
Europe are working towards or within
the goal of zero waste. The Conca
Park is a 205 room hotel in Sorrento,
Italy, which proudly advertises its zero
waste achievement across its website.
The management undertook a
number of initiatives to reduce waste
including replacing all single portion
and disposable items, introducing
water dispensers to reduce the use of
bottled water and replacing a number
of plastic items with recyclable
or compostable materials. It has
achieved over 80% recycled waste.
At a smaller scale, a 14 room hotel
and restaurant in the UK, Strattons
Hotel, recycles or reuses 98% of waste.
In addition to the environmental and
social benefits, this saves the business
more than £1,000 each year in waste
disposal costs.
Zero waste can seem like a
daunting, even impossible task, so
don’t let it discourage you. To help
you get started on your journey,
measuring yourself against others in
the industry and try to achieve levels
that the best performers are already
reaching. The European Commission’s
Best Environmental Management
Practice in Tourism report (2013)
offers a number of ‘benchmarks
for excellence’ in relation to
efficient waste management. These
Benchmarks include:
› At least 84% of waste, by weight,
recycled
› Unsorted waste sent for disposal
less than 0.16kg per guest per night
› Total waste (sorted and unsorted)
less than 0.6kg per guest per night.
GETTY IMAGES
Reduce, reuse,
sort, recycle
Reducing waste is easiest done by not
creating it in the first place. Some easy
strategies include:
› Look at replacing single serve toiletries
and food packaging with refillable
dispensers
› Monitor stock levels on perishable items
to prevent over-ordering.
› Select suppliers who don’t use
unnecessary packaging, or who provide
a return service on packaging
› Replace plastic water bottles with
refillable glass and tap or filtered water
› Reuse items within your business or
forward them on for other uses
› Use refillable glass bottles for guest
water.
Develop a process to sort all waste for
collection, including paper and cardboard,
aluminium cans, plastic packaging and
glass bottles. Find out what other types
of waste can be recycled in your region. If
you have a restaurant, cooking oils may
be recycled for producing biofuel. If food
waste is not collected separately in your
area, you can start composting it on site or
find local partners who are already doing
this and that may take your food waste
too.
MAKING THE CHANGE
Looking at the end results before you get there can
make achieving zero waste appear a much bigger
and more unmanageable process than it needs to
be. Undertake an inventory, discover where the
changes can be made, and work from there. You
don’t need to do it all at once.
When you have your baseline waste inventory,
make one easy change, such as replacing bottled
water in disposable bottles by returnable bottles
or tap water in reusable bottles. Monitor the
changes to your waste patterns as they happen.
Keep your staff informed and engaged with the
process and the progress of the program. Then
move to the next change. Perhaps replacing bins
in accommodation with sorting bins. Then move
to the next change…
Before you realise it, you’ll be knocking on the
door of achieving zero waste and all the benefits
this brings.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Take A Green Step is brought to you by
the European Commission’s directorate
general for the environment, supported by
the European Commission’s Joint Research
Centre. For more advice, best practise
and case studies, visit www.ec.europa.eu/
environment/emas/takeagreenstep
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