Hotel takes out the trash

It’s not something hotel guests would notice, but in three months the Serena Hotel has diverted over four tonnes of recyclable waste from the landfill.

“It’s not for the guests, it’s for us. It’s part of our responsibility. The guests don’t even know,” says Serena general manager Rahim Azad.

The material collected include white paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, glass, cans and nylon.

“All these items would end up the the landfill,” says Azad.

The majority of the waste was paper — over 34 trees worth — and over one tonne of glass, says Matthew Haden, whose company The Recycler is running the recycling operation.

“Glass is 100 percent recyclable and can be recycled endlessly. However, if it ends up in a landfill it will not decompose for thousands of years,” says Haden.

Haden says recycled paper is locally processed into toilet paper, cardboard is made into envelopes, glass is made back into glass and plastic is processed locally and exported to the East where it is made into t-shirts, ropes and other plastic items.

Azad’s message to other companies: “Do a test run, try it out and see if it works for you. It’s a crime not to give it a try.”

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