The Hilton Abu Dhabi charity fashion show challenged staff to create outfits from 100% recycled materials.
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Another regional hotel group aiming to promote the benefits of waste management for hotels beyond simple cost saving measures is the UAE-based Rotana Hotels, which has recently introduced a new green corporate strategy, monitored independently by a third party, which will be rolled out across all of its properties.
This green strategy has already seen the introduction of colour coded waste bins for the separation of disposable and recyclable waste on every floor across its hotels, with every restaurant and guest area also using segregated trash containers.
“However, keep in mind that recycling is also a lifestyle, and is not always something you can dictate,” warns Rotana area vice president for Dubai and Northern Emirates Thomas Tapken.
| Advertisement |
“While modern waste management initiatives will continue to grow in the region, its success in each individual property will depend on how much the general manager is involved and how it is presented to their colleagues.
Another issue is that our hotels have guests from many different parts of the world, many of which where recycling is not so common. So first we have to create a lifestyle, create a vision and then set certain goals, which is currently where the process is now,” he admits.
“We have to keep in mind that only 10 years ago, there was no garbage separation possible, because if you separated it and the same truck picked it up and put it in the same garbage dump.
In contrast today, every Rotana property has an EHS (Environment Health and Safety) manager, as well as holding monthly meetings about all the waste management actions and initiatives to be taken in the hotel,” reveals Tapken.
This is a sentiment echoed again by Mil-Tek’s Darren Laird, who believes that by “simply reducing the volume of its waste, a hotel will benefit in many ways”.
He says: “If you decrease your waste volume, then less rubbish has to be put into skips and take up space, which in turn means fewer trips or collections have to be arranged to take that waste to the landfill.
“Additionally, as well as reducing basic costs for the hotel, reducing waste also has countless, easy to judge benefits for your hotel and environment.
By minimising the amount of plastic, glass and cardboard you are throwing away, your hotel is taking up less room in the landfill, while less traffic and trucks have to be on the road coming to collect it, which reduces car pollution, and the number of noisy trucks coming and going through the loading area of your hotel,” he concludes.
Article continues on next page ...
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
