No doubt many of us are fortunate enough to go on holiday and stay in a nice hotel for a holiday, whether that’s here in the UK or overseas the main draw for people staying in a hotel tends to be that you can put your feet up, relax and not have to concern yourself with any of the cleaning or tidying up.
Nevertheless, this is someone’s job. Whatever kind of premises your hotel may be and of whatever size, hotel waste management can cause logistical issues for those responsible for it. Hotel waste management is not always simple and frequently hotels tend to carry out a waste management strategy that might not be sustainable over time. Moreover, it may be the case that seeking a more eco-friendly alternative for waste disposal can be complex and time-consuming.
As hotels create a large variety of waste streams throughout the year within premises where cleanliness and health and safety are of utmost importance you can totally appreciate why it could be difficult to think about environmentally sound solutions.
Hotels are huge consumers of all kinds of resources, and they very much impact this generation of waste. In the time of Green Economy and green strategies, recycling would benefit not just the environment but also the industry as a whole. It is essential for the hotel industry to have an effective waste management system that focuses on reducing waste, reusing materials and then recycling them. Commercial processes often generate plenty of waste and require regular maintenance and expensive waste disposal.
Importance of Waste Management in Hotels
Waste management in hotels is crucial as it is getting very difficult to dispose of it. Moreover, it makes good sense to the hospitality industry to implement good techniques for disposing of waste. When supplies are used well – it can, in turn, save you lots of money on raw materials. You may even generate additional income by selling old resources by reusing and recycling materials. Therefore, you end up decreasing the cost of waste disposal as the amount of waste produced is decreased.
In this blog, we discuss how, if you work in the hospitality industry there are a few ways you can reduce and manage your waste a little more responsibly, read on to discover more.
According to Wrap, two million tonnes of waste is generated by the hospitality industry yearly in the UK, so what are they doing to deal with this?
Statistically, it is estimated that:
● Hotels — produce 289,700 tonnes of waste each year, including 79,000 tonnes of food waste (9% total food waste from the sector).
● Pubs — produce 873,800 tonnes of waste each year, including 173,000 tonnes of food waste (19% total food waste from the sector).
● Restaurants — produce 915,400 tonnes of waste each year, including 199,100 tonnes of food waste (22% total food waste from the sector).
● Other hospitality sectors’ food waste contributions: quick-service restaurants (8.3%), staff catering (2%), leisure (7%), services (3%), healthcare (13%) and education (13%).
It’s crucial that businesses can support their wider community, and this is something hotels and restaurants can do easily with local farms. Forbes revealed some of the ways the hotel industry can really improve their waste management.
Removing plastic waste in the hospitality sector
It can start with:
● Using refillable dispensers for soaps, shampoos, and conditioners
● Using washable cloth products and dishware instead of disposable ones
● Using water filters instead of plastic bottles
● Reducing and reusing supplies packaging materials
● Reducing the number of paper products
● Switching to LED lights
Steps for effective waste management in hotels
Characterization and quantification of waste in the hotel industry
You need to consider the importance of categorizing the types of waste created by all departments of the hotel industry so that it is managed efficiently. An example of this being, office waste (like papers, documents, brochures), household waste (jars, bottles, cardboard), organic waste (vegetable and fruit peels, flowers) which can all be segregated in colour-coded bins for easy and straightforward waste management.
This idea was made clear by Waste Online who offer options to manage waste by prevention, minimization, reuse, recycle, recovery and disposal which prevents a lot of waste from going to the waste stream. Recovery is the most crucial stage of the process due to some value of the material is retrieved through recycling. The final step is disposal which generally involves landfill and incineration of waste.
The hotel industry generates a lot of waste and most of the time it does get sent to the landfills without being treated as it should. The first stage in managing the data analysis of waste is to perform a proper waste audit. Waste auditing is establishing the process of productivity from waste management practices in hotels. With the assistance of trash compactors or industrial balers wastes can the volume of waste can be immensely reduced which makes it easier to handle and the cost of waste disposal is reduced.
Anything ranging from hospitals to hotel chains compactors of various sizes, shapes and convenience will present themselves to be perfect as a waste disposal tool. The organic waste in the hotel can be decreased with the help of a food composter. Composting is a biological process which needs certain temperature moisture, ventilation and carbon and nitrogen ratio. Compost is a very useful soil conditioner and fertile manure.
The most common types of waste generated in hotels
This type of waste is becoming increasingly frowned upon due to landfill sites filling up. Moreover, none of the waste we collect is passed on to landfill. If your hotel is producing a significant amount of general waste we will be able to dispose of that for you.
Food waste management services involve the collecting your food waste separately and sending it off for composting in anaerobic digestion facility. This is environmentally friendly. Here at DCW, we make sure that our food waste recycling services are beneficial by working with Langage Farm near Plymouth to help sustainable initiatives. The food waste that you give to us can be used to produce energy and compost which will help to supply power to the farm and factory as well as keep the land and the farm animals healthy.
Glass recycling services are suitable for the hospitality and hotel industry alike. Lots of waste from hotels consist of empty bottles and jars. It’s preferred to separate this high-quality material from other recyclable materials. If this is not the case it will require extensive sorting resulting in a loss of quality.
Here at Devon Contract Waste, we’re an Exeter based recycling centre who specialises in the recycling and disposal of waste for organisations across the South West of the United Kingdom. For the last three decades we have been providing bespoke waste disposal services for a number of local businesses and we aim to continue working within the community for the next thirty years and continue to help them dispose of their waste responsibly. At DCW we take pride in providing professional waste management services that exceed the expectations of our customers. Whether waste disposal or rubbish removal, we guarantee that our services will allow you to meet your obligations for the safe disposal of waste at a cost that is affordable to you. To find out more about the services we offer, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.