AHATA, the Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association hosted a Sustainable Management crash-course just recently facilitated by AHATA’s Excellence Award winner, Sustainability Champion Nathaly Stanley, who serves as Sustainability Manager at Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort.
AHATA’s CEO, Tisa La Sorte, thought she would have a handful of people interested, and scheduled the crash-course into the AHATA board room. She was surprised to see 27 individuals who showed up for the presentation, most of them in the field of sustainability at the hotels, I even saw one general manager, some directors of engineering.
Why?
Because according to a case study presented by Nathaly, a 450 room hotel property which averages 2.72 metric ton of waste per room, per year, IF it does not separate garbage, and just throws everything into the compactor, it will be paying Awg 242,266 per year, to dispose of the mess.
Garbage disposal rates went up dramatically recently, following an agreement by Serlimar and ECOTECH.
Just as an example: The same quantity of trash previously cost Awg 99,058, to dispose.
So, the steep augment propelled the hotels into action, and according to Nathaly’s presentation they could SAVE 92,409 per year, that’s 38% of their cost, if they separate their waste into three categories: Food waste, cardboard and glass.
The Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort feed their food waste to pigs, I understand that farmers pick it up, making their pigs very happy on haute cuisine, and saving the resort 28% of waste disposal fees.
That strategy prevents almost 400 tons from going to the landfill and most importantly cracks down on greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to 154 passenger cars driven for one full year.
Imagine.
Following the well-informed presentation, I heard from the general manager that he immediately ordered a cardboard baler, and is looking forward to an 8% cost reduction.
According to Nathaly, if you recycle cardboard you save money and prevent 130 tons from going to the landfill, and most importantly crack down on greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to 104 passenger cars driven for one full year.
And so on with glass. 2% savings.
I thing the message is slowly sinking in that waste should be proactively prevented, meaning REDUCED, and actively managed, REUSED and RECYCLED.
Suggestion: Some of the hotels chlorinate Aruba’s delicious water to adhere to their corporate safety standards. So, guests resort to buying bottled water. You could UV the water for added safety, and encourage guests to drink from the tap, cracking down on hopi plastic!
