Waste management in the hospitality industry

Times are tough in the hospitality industry. But imagine slashing your waste disposal bill by a third. That can be achieved in a very quick time with the help of CEC Waste Management. We regularly help our clients dramatically turn around their costs, while reducing their carbon footprint.

The hospitality industry is facing huge challenges now in the wake of the Covid pandemic, but it is also facing a less visible – but equally important – challenge. Waste management. Gone are the days when you’d fill a skip in the backyard and someone else would deal with it. Modern business requires a more ethical, thoughtful, and sustainable approach.

Sustainability in hotels is now more important than ever. See below two crucial questions towards hotel waste management and sustainability:

Does your hotel have a sustainability agenda?
Do you update your agenda regularly?

From our experience hotels truly want to be sustainable, but they do not know how or where to start. We can help.

Sustainability and waste management are easy to achieve.

The mistake that most hotels make is they do not know where they are starting from. They embrace the idea of sustainability and all that it entails but have it more as links on their website and a list of what they will try and achieve than actually delivering on these commitments.

It is very easy with CEC to achieve zero waste to landfill, to pinpoint your carbon footprint, to reduce your waste volume and associated costs.

CEC will prove to you that you can achieve substantial cost savings throughout your hotel and at the same time reduce your waste volume, pinpoint your carbon footprint and your cost and usage of water, gas, electricity.

Your staff can be educated to achieve your green agenda and to monitor cost savings. Going green will save you money and not cost you.

We can give your hotel a competitive edge, educate your staff to go green in all aspects of the business and achieve savings of 35% on your waste costs, while reducing your waste volumes by 40%. Waste food reduction of 80%. As we have said above if you know where you are starting from then that is all you need to know. Most hotels do not know where that position is.

What is waste management in the hospitality industry?

Zero Waste to Landfill Declaration with CEC

Hotels particularly, but also bars and restaurants, are huge consumers of resources. They use an enormous supply of perishables such as food and beverages, but also use detergents, cleaning products, linen, and other items. Even down to disposable toothbrushes and tiny bars of soap for guests. All this consumption generates two things – packaging and waste. And both have to be disposed of. How that waste is managed can make a big difference to the profit margin in times when the economy is under pressure.

If a hotel implements an effective waste management system they can reduce waste, reuse useful items, and recycle. This can reduce waste management costs, but can also allow supplies to go further. All this affects the bottom line.

A good system is also important because the whole waste management industry is coming under increasing regulation. Everything needs to be disposed of properly, and failure to do so will cost.

Research commissioned by ITP highlights that the hotel industry must reduce its carbon emissions by 66% by 2030 and 90% by 2050 to stay within the 2˚C threshold agreed at COP21. (https://unfccc.int/news/un-works-with-global-hotel-industry-to-reduce-emissions)

Stay ahead of this by contacting CEC today to get started with your hotel waste management / hotel green manager plan!

What is the cost of waste management in the hotel industry?

Zero Waste to Landfill Declaration with CEC

Disposing of waste involves coordinating with the experts – local councils, landfill sites, and recycling centres. And there are charges for each. Waste needs to be sorted effectively, but focusing on this can reduce your costs. It starts with supply – only order what you need, so that nothing gets wasted. This is particularly important with perishables – vegetables that can’t go into a freezer, for instance.

Then you sort out your recyclables. You can actually generate additional income by selling old resources and reusing and recycling useful materials. That reduces the cost of waste disposal, and improves the bottom line.

This is the importance of waste management.

It reduces the amount of waste (which brings down costs), makes some of that waste actually pay, and makes sure your organisation doesn’t run foul of the constantly evolving environmental regulations.

How can I calculate my business’ carbon footprint?

The Environmental Protection Agency offers a lot of resources, including online carbon footprint calculators, but a rough estimate is not difficult to arrive at. Consider your emissions. Are you using fossil fuels to heat your hotel, or do you run an emergency generator? Does the transport you use cause emissions? Then you look at other factors – and waste management is one of the most important in hospitality. It is these factors that allow you to reduce your carbon footprint easily and cost-effectively.

Here is an important factor to consider – can you do that yourself, or does it make sense to call in an expert? You use outside help for auditing, for designing extensions to your premises, and so on. That’s because you can’t do it all yourself. You bring in experts – and experts see more than you do. It’s their job.

The same goes for waste management. Bringing in experts such as CEC Waste Management allows you to go back to what you are good at, while we bring down your costs. And you would be surprised how effective a good waste management consultant can be. We literally pay for ourselves.

We helped The Maryborough Hotel in Cork with their target of ‘Zero Waste to Landfill’. With our support they achieved this ambitious target in just four months. And they reduced their waste by a massive 35%.

Imagine slashing a third off your waste management bill in just four months? And helping the environment as a nice bonus. That is what we do for our clients. So get in touch, ask your questions, and see what difference we can make to your business.

Hospitality & green tourism.

What’s the Difference Between Green Tourism, Ecotourism, and Sustainable Tourism?

Green Tourism promotes greener ways for hotels to do business. Contact us to find out more about our Green Manager Plan. Under this plan your hotel will be sought after by clients who are prepared to pay more for an environmentally run hotel. See below our checklist towards attracting green tourism.

Be Intentional About Sustainability. As with any other business initiative, you need to create a plan of action and assign accountability. Hold people accountable and measure the results. Once that is done, do it again. This will create momentum in your efforts.
Partner with Employees. Employees are at the frontline with customers and carrying out the mission of your business including the sustainability agenda of the company.
Water and Energy Conservation. Water conservation leads to energy conservation.
Supply Chains. A supply chain is a network between a company and its suppliers to produce and distribute a specific product or service. The entities in the supply chain include producers, vendors, warehouses, transportation companies, distribution centres, and retailers.
Develop a Recycling Program. Select a recycling coordinator. practice waste prevention. set up a collection program. Manage and measure the programme.
Chemical Management. A Chemical Management System is a process that ensures proper compliance with safety, environmental and food safety policy.
Purchase Only Energy Efficient Products. Timers and thermostats, Lighting, controls, and sensors. An investment in energy efficiency – however small – will help drive increased competitiveness and build resilience to the headwinds of market uncertainty and energy price volatility.
Develop Sustainability Work Policies. Sustainable development is based on three main elements: uniform economic growth, protection and preservation of the environment, and respect and improvement of social and human rights.

What is Ecotourism?

Ecotourism is now defined as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education.” Education is meant to be inclusive of both staff and guests.
As defined by the International Ecotourism Society, ecotourism refers to “responsible travel that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people”.

The Benefits of EcoTourism:

Ecotourism focuses on unadulterated, pristine natural environments.
It builds cultural and environmental awareness.
It encourages positive experience for visitors as well as communities.
It minimizes the impact of tourism on the environment.
It boosts employment and financial opportunities for local communities.
It encourages conservation by providing financial benefits in its favour.

Sustainable Hotels

Sustainability has been a growing focus for hoteliers in the last 10 years. This is good news for all of us, as the hospitality industry has had a significant impact on the environment due to its rate of water consumption as well as hotels’ use of consumable goods and energy.

Many hotels, restaurants and tourism establishments already have some system in place for sorting and collecting everyday waste items such as bottles, cans, cardboard and paper for reuse or recycling.

What gets measured gets managed. Hotels need to know the answers to the following to set their sustainability agenda:

Their current waste position.
Pinpoint their carbon footprint
How to create a zero waste to landfill policy
How to access their energy and water usage.

We take the mystique out of how to start your journey to ensuring your hotel has the certification and validation process in place to show your customers whether they are corporate or private individuals that you are serious about your green agenda but that you can back it up with cold hard data that has been validated.