Is possible to be sustainable working with tourism?

Tourism x sustainability

Thinking about the title of this post, in the first moment it is easy to believe that this is a difficult equation to solve. However, if well managed, tourism can generate sufficient resources to bring benefits to the environment, local community and profit for the organisation.

As a tourist, it is very important to observe such actions, which are often divulged by the lodging business (inn, hotel, farm hotel, etc.), and thus being able to choose the enterprise that develops such social and environmental actions, contributing to the sustainable development and protection of the environment in the region visited.

But what are these sustainable actions?

How to make sure that such actions are developed and if the results are even those published by the businesses? How to differentiate true actions from greenwashing?

It is very important that the company be aware of the conscious use of energy, water, chemical and other resources. And to reach this there are widely publicised ways, such as LED bulbs, towel reuse program, use of natural light, solar heating, biodegradable chemicals, among others.

But when we talk about countryside/farm lodgings, another approach can (and should) be taken, in special in regards to generation and treatment of solid and liquid waste.

Most of these enterprises are located in or near forest fragments, rivers or streams whose water is used by the surrounding communities. Entrepreneurs and tourists should be aware that they are not isolated and all their actions have impacts on the environment and the local community.

When we talk about solid waste, we are referring to packaging (cardboard, plastic, glass, etc.), food scraps (rice, boiled, beans, meat), organic scraps (fruit and vegetable peel, orange cake, among others), garden waste and miscellaneous waste.

Organic waste

Working on the management of organic waste, composting is an old practice used to generate organic fertiliser that can be used in gardens, orchards or vegetable gardens. In this case, all organic waste from your kitchen and restaurant can be used, and this in addition to garden debris and even animal manure, after a period, generate a compost rich in nitrogen and carbon to be used in the garden. An interesting tip is to have a worm farm to improve the quality of the compost, turning it into humus.

Remember, however, that the leftover food (as cooked and seasoned grains and vegetables and meats), which despite being an organic waste, can not be used in composting, because they do not generate the desired compost and attract vectors, such as mice, flies, cockroaches, etc.

A good destination for this type of waste is pig feed. For businesses that do not have these animals on their property, an option is to donate such waste to members of the local community who develop family farming and livestock near the business.

“Dry” waste

These can be classified into aluminium, plastic, cardboard/paper, steel, glass and landfill waste (non-recyclable). In order to properly dispose of this waste and at the same time try to obtain financial return, one of the options is the construction of a Sorting Center, and there, in an organized and clean manner, this waste, which until then would be considered as “trash”, can be separated and forwarded to a specialized company. Such an initiative brings benefits to the environment and profits for the enterprise (by selling these materials).

At Portal do Sol Hotel Fazenda, a farm lodge in Brazil, which can receive 150 guests per day, eight tons of waste were recycled in the first year of implementation of a Sorting Center. In other words, the company no longer dispose eight tons of garbage to the landfill yearly, contributing to the environment and community, generating revenue and income (one employee was hired to do this task), and creating a new product/service (the hotel is now receiving groups for an educational day use) and even increase media exposure due to these actions.

The tip for the entrepreneur is to develop a logistics within the accommodation that favours the prior separation of waste, installing, for example, specific dumps for each type of waste. To facilitate such separation, awareness of staff and guests is very important, and the use of signposts for tourists and training for staff are examples of tools for this. This pre-sorting facilitates the work of the Sorting Center and prevents some materials from getting lost on the way.

Liquid waste

Liquid waste is all waste from the kitchen and bathroom drains. It is the sewage plus the water used in the kitchen. Due to their location, most farm hotels are not serviced by the public sewage collection system and therefore have to provide the appropriate solution for such waste. Many entrepreneurs use ordinary pits, which in many cases are not designed properly, thus generating odour, polluting groundwater, rivers, among others. Not to mention the ventures that throw this waste directly into streams, polluting the water of the entire region. Hence the importance of tourists to understand such actions and choose places that deal with this subject with professionalism.

One of the best ways to manage this type of waste is the implementation of an effluent treatment plant. The implementation of an effective control system may, at first, require a considerable financial investment, but it is essential and therefore should be in the plans of any lodging business that is not serviced by the public sewage collection network.

But what are the benefits of such actions?

There are many, firstly environmental, such as preservation of soil, fauna and flora, in addition to the preservation of water resources and benefits to people's health. While proper waste treatment is a trend, very often there is new legislation abording this problem, and anyone who gets ahead will surely have advantages in the future.

In some countries, for example, it is already possible to find financing in which interest rates are lower for enterprises that develop such actions. How previously exemplified businesses can also take advantage of this sustainable actions to generate new products, as the Pedagogical Day Use, receiving schools and groups to spread these practices and in the background improve the hotel brand.

Tourists play a key role in this new trend. By giving preference to ventures already developing such actions and avoiding places that do not yet properly treat their waste, thus polluting the environment. The traveller will be helping responsible ventures while encouraging other companies to adopt such practices.

By Thiago Cagna

#sustainablehotel #sustainability #wastemanagment #recycling #sortingwaste #tourism