Estate Living Magazine The Slow Movement - Issue 39 March 2019 | Page 28

P R O P E R T Y
&
I N V E S T M E N T
of waste management, who comply with environmental legislation,
and are able to offer advice on the most environmentally friendly
and cost-efficient methods of disposal. It is good to note that there
are more than 200 waste service providers operating in the Western
Cape alone, across the full value chain, i.e. collection, transportation,
disposal, recycling, sorting, storage and cleaning.
Leslie van Zyl, Commercial Operation Manager at Waste Plan,
which specialises in waste management and provides on-site staff,
says: ‘We sort and recycle as much as possible before disposing
only the minimum waste to landfill.’
Zero to Landfill Organics provides training, educational material and
separation systems for the setting up of organic waste separation
programmes for businesses, as well as a service to collect and
compost source-separated food waste, paper towels (from
bathrooms) and garden waste. Managing Director Melanie Jones
emphasises the importance of recycling organic waste – especially
food waste. ‘By source-separating organic waste from other waste
streams, the contamination of plastic, paper, glass and metals is
prevented, increasing recycling percentages to over 90%.’
set in 2013 to 97.06% in 2018. ‘And of the 2.2 kilograms of waste
generated per guest per stay, only 64 grams could not be diverted
from landfill – it isn’t just not recyclable, but is also not reusable,
compostable or upcyclable – but we are actively searching for new
ways of repurposing this waste too.’ Year on year the hotel has also
achieved a 36% reduction in waste production, which equates to a
saving of 71 tonnes of waste not being generated – no mean feat!
This could not have been achieved without the hotel aligning
themselves with waste contractors who understand the complexities
Dawie Meiring says: ‘Do you know that up to 60% of the rubbish that
ends up in the dustbin can be recycled, that a recycled plastic bottle
saves enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for three hours,
and that while certain plastics will eventually decompose after
anything from 10 to 1,000 years, some never really do? Recycled
paper produces 73% less air pollution than if it were made from raw
materials, and the energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will
power a 100-watt light bulb for almost an hour.’
These are just a few of the very powerful reasons why waste
management as part of your sustainability strategy is key in helping to
protect the environment and sustain its natural resources for current
and future generations. And staff members at Hotel Verde can be
heard echoing the owner Mario Delicio’s chime of: ‘Waste is value
for Verde Hotels, but the best is waste that is avoided completely.’
If one hotel can do it, any estate can. And if one estate can do it, they
all can. Imagine if we all changed our perceptions.
verdehotels.com