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Enter a hotel, restaurant or café, and most of what you see around will be disposable plastic, single-use products such as bottled water, straws or amenity shampoo bottles. Taking into account the notoriety of the plastic problem, many key players from the hospitality industry now are joining the warpath against single-use plastic.
No to straws and bottles
In a recent announcement, the Hilton group banned the use of plastic straws from all its UAE hotels. Plastic bottles used in meetings and event spaces have also been removed. Approximately 3.5 million straws and over 2 million water bottles made of plastic will be removed each year from Hilton's 25 hotels in the country.
In addition to carrying out these measures, Hilton properties in the UAE have continued to take additional steps to reduce the consumption of single-use plastics. Over 2.4 million plastic food and beverage products and five million plastic bags have been replaced with biodegradable alternatives.
William Costley, vice-president of operations for the Arabian Peninsula and Turkey at Hilton, said: "Last May, we made a promise to eliminate plastic straws and bottled water from conferences and we are proud to have accomplished this goal. We will continue to work with suppliers to ensure that wherever possible, single-use plastic items are replaced with biodegradable and/or paper alternatives."
Beyond the UAE, Hilton is taking steps to completely remove plasticwares from its hotels across Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific. It has also committed to removing plastic straws, stir sticks and cocktail picks from all 5,600+ hotels globally this year.
Water bottle refilling
TRYP by Wyndham Dubai, a 650-room hotel in Barsha Heights, has fully operationalised the region's first-ever glass water bottle refilling system, completely eliminating the use of plastic bottles. A water filtration system removes chlorine and contaminants from the water.
The glass bottles, once used, are cleaned, refilled and labelled in-house. This makes them the first hotel in the UAE to become completely PET bottle-free.
TRYP by Wyndham Dubai partnered with the company No More Bottles that will connect a technologically-advanced water filtration unit to the hotel's main water supply. The filtered water runs to a dispenser that delivers water of different temperatures - even sparkling water.
Alternatively, the filter is fitted underneath a sink and connected directly to a tap. Using techniques including reverse osmosis and UV light, water is made free from contaminants and chlorine, eliminating the need for expensive and environmentally unfriendly plastic bottles.
Pete Haigh, business development manager at No More Bottles, said: "After working in the industry, it became clear to us that reliance on plastic bottled water is unsustainable and that public perception that tap water is not drinkable meant there was a real need for change - both from an environmental impact and public perception. We saw the consumer demand was beginning to change, and so the idea for a bottle free mains-water filtration system for both residential and commercial sectors was born."
A number of Dubai restaurants have realised that packaging is also another big source of plastic waste; most of those takeaway boxes, plastic plates and cutlery only get used once.
Inspired by Hamdan
Freedom Pizza is one of the first few restaurants that in 2018 completely removed all single-use plastic straws and cutlery from their company.
Ian Ohan, founder of Freedom Pizza, told Khaleej Times that they were largely inspired by the thoughtful acts of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, in dedicating his efforts on #InternationalVolunteerDay to cleaning the Arabian Sea and under the global environmental initiative, Strawless Ocean whose hashtag #StopSucking went viral.
"We calculated that in 2017 we had put out 500,000 plastic straws and cutlery packs to our customers. As a restaurant delivery company, this made no sense; so we decided to do something about it. We replaced the cutlery with bamboo, eco-cutlery which our customers can opt to purchase with their meal if required."
Ohan said: "We saw the efforts of Sheikh Hamdan and we also learned that the American actor Adrien Grenier had founded a non-profit group called Blue Whale that was challenging our industry to reduce single-use plastics #StopSucking. We joined the international movement and championed it in the region, not only through our action but by challenging others to do the same. We also partnered locally with Azraq and the Ethicalist to spread our message and 56 companies followed our lead."
Freedom Pizza will soon be launching a new concept called Wildflower Poke and More, which will be launched with eco-friendly packaging.
"We have only one planet - a little thought goes a long way when you are serving tens of thousand meals a week," he added.
saman@khaleejtimes.com
Swap plastics with organic stuff
A group of friends - all from different age groups - said they had a common interest that binds them together: Finding a solution to the world's plastic problem. They formed Smile With Alternatives to Plastics (Swap) seven months ago. The group from International Association for Human Values (IAHV) and Art of Living, are inspiring every one to change the scene of plastic pollution.
Realising the presence of 'plastics' in almost everything that we use in our lives and the adverse effects it has on our environment, the group decided to cut plastics in their lives by about 50 per cent.
Volunteers of the IAHV have been spreading awareness of plastic pollution through projects and events, in corporate and public sectors and schools for many years, since 2005.
The lead of Swap, Sanju said she motivates the group to segregate plastic wastes at home. "If you segregate, then it will become a valuable recyclable resource. This is something my husband and I have been practising and preaching for the last 20 years."
Sanju and her husband Venkat Rao have been taking their plastic waste as well as the plastic waste of some of their building residents to recycling centres from more than 15 years. "Every time I take with me a new set of people to the recycling centre so they can connect with the plastic waste issue, get practical awareness become plastic-conscious shoppers.
The mantra of this group is 4Rs - Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle - where refuse is for single-use plastics totally and offer alternatives on changing sources of plastic from oil base to plant base...
The group recently organised a unique experience
for teenagers, where the teens were invited for an exclusive movie evening where they were shown videos of how plastics are hurting marine creatures and what solutions they could provide as the upcoming generation to save the planet.
Some other initiatives done by Swap include promoting cotton bags for grocery shopping, making bamboo pulp disposable plates and packaging material to take over leftovers from parties, promoting zero waste homes by composting wet waste and recycling all dry waste, resourcing paper seed pens which grow into plants. The group also promotes takeaways at festivals and parties in banana leaves and reuse of yogurt containers instead of buying new disposable ones.
Defining the purpose of the group, Sanju said: "In this group we share, discus ideas and practices. We find sources/ solutions to give alternatives to plastic products of daily use and encourage newcomers to practise waste segregation. We also stress on recycling all recyclable waste and we do this by taking children as well as their families on fun trips to the Dubai Municipality recycling centres," Sanju said.
saman@khaleejtimes.com
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