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To Line or Not To Line
Garbage bags are an environmental nightmare. What can you do to minimize your contribution to this horror? Recycling is one great way. Contact your local recycling centers to see what kind of recycling activities you can do. Use durable wastebaskets without liners. Subscribe to the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle approach to your operation to cut down on garbage generation. When you have to use trash or garbage bags, use a recyclable plastic.
I had the pleasure at staying at a green hotel in Austin, Texas, recently. I'd long been impressed with the lengths management went to for running an environmentally friendly hotel. Solar panels, salt purification of the pool and spa, organic and edible gardens rather than grass, bulk shampoo and conditioner, and recycling being among the green actions Habitat Suites takes. And when I met Natalie Marquis at a green hotel conference in February 2006 I was wowed by her energy and enthusiasm. She's a ball of energy and a force to be reckoned with, as the city of Austin has learned during their various joint environmental projects.
We were there for two nights so had plenty of time to observe the myriad green things done at Habitat Suites. The one thing they do, that I see lots of hotels doing, is line their durable wastebaskets with plastic bags. It's never made sense to me. Why ruin the look of the wastebasket with the plastic bag hanging over the top of a wastebasket that can be wiped out? That little bit of plastic mars the look of the room like a slip showing at the bottom of a skirt mars the look of the ensemble.
Natalie gave us a tour of the grounds and the laundry facility, so I had a chance to ask her a few questions, starting with the plastic bag issue. She had a very logical answer: they wasted more water washing the wastebaskets than they were comfortable with. The plastic bags they use are recycled and recyclable so they feel that is less of an environmental demerit than the wasted water.
Now, to play devils advocate a bit about the raised issues here, I'd like to suggest a few challenges. First, unless the plastic bags are made from non-petroleum-based plastic, using them contributes to continued dependence on oil -- an environmental issue of a huge magnitude.
Second, most of the wastebaskets don't need to be washed, but merely wiped out. Yes, there will be the occasional wastebasket with a sticky mess that will need washing, and that basket could be swapped with a clean one and later cleaned so the water becomes gray water for landscaping.
Third, a bit money is tied up in plastic bags, money that could be used for other purposes. The labor involved in placing and securing a plastic bag inside a wastebasket isn't much different than wiping the wastebasket with an environmentally friendly cleaner. One recyclable trash bag can be used to gather the contents of all of the wastebaskets. Why put plastic bags in a plastic bag? It seems like a huge waste, so to speak, to me!
And finally, the recycling efforts some waste companies go to are hindered by having to open all the plastic bags within the plastic bag. Habitat Suites is especially lucky to have a trash hauler that lets them commingle all of their trash that's then sorted at the receiving facility. To make that an even more cooperative relationship, making it easier on the sorters by removing one barrier to their target, don't bury the trash inside layers of plastic.
I challenge all environmentally friendly hospitality venues to greatly reduce, if not cut out completely, the use of plastic bags. If you can't go without a trash can liner, at least make the "plastic" a recyclable one, say out of potato starch, and then cut out the wastebasket liners. I further challenge hospitality venues that aren't taking environmental steps to make their first one the removal of plastic bags from their wastebaskets.
Posted by Kit Cassingham
