Trump chickens out again.

[snoop1130]

On Thai island, hotel guests check out of plastic waste

Michael Taylor, Thomson Reuters Foundation

 

 

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For the millions of sun seekers who head to Thailand’s resort island of Phuket each year in search of stunning beaches and clear waters, cutting down on waste may not be a top priority.

 

But the island’s hotel association is hoping to change that with a series of initiatives aimed at reducing the use of plastic, tackling the garbage that washes up on its shores, and educating staff, local communities and tourists alike.

 

“Hotels unchecked are huge consumers and users of single-use plastics,” said Anthony Lark, president of the Phuket Hotels Association and managing director of the Trisara resort.

 

“Every resort in Southeast Asia has a plastic problem. Until we all make a change, it’s going to get worse and worse,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

 

Established in 2016 and with about 70 members - including all Phuket’s five-star hotels - the association has put tackling environmental issues high on its to-do list.

Last year the group surveyed members’ plastics use and then began looking at ways to shrink their plastics footprint.

 

As part of this, three months ago the association’s hotels committed to phase out, or put plans in place to stop using plastic water bottles and plastic drinking straws by 2019.

 

About five years ago, Lark’s own resort with about 40 villas used to dump into landfill about 250,000 plastic water bottles annually. It has now switched to reusable glass bottles.

 

The hotel association also teamed up with the documentary makers of “A Plastic Ocean”, and now show an edited version with Thai subtitles for staff training.

Meanwhile hotel employees and local school children take part in regular beach clean-ups.

 

“The association is involved in good and inclusive community-based action, rather than just hotel general managers getting together for a drink,” Lark said.

 

CREATORS AND VICTIMS

 

Phuket, like Bali in Indonesia and Boracay in the Philippines, has become a top holiday destination in Southeast Asia - and faces similar challenges.

 

Of a similar size to Singapore and at the geographical heart of Southeast Asia, Phuket is easily accessible to tourists from China, India, Malaysia and Australia.

 

With its white sandy beaches and infamous nightlife, Phuket attracts about 10 million visitors each year, media reports say, helping make the Thai tourism industry one of the few bright spots in an otherwise lacklustre economy.

 

Popular with holiday makers and retirees, Phuket - like many other Southeast Asian resorts - must contend with traffic congestion, poor water management and patchy waste collection services.

 

Despite these persistent problems, hotels in the region need to follow Phuket’s lead and step up action to cut their dependence on plastics, said Susan Ruffo, a managing director at the U.S.-based non-profit group Ocean Conservancy.

 

Worldwide, between 8 million and 15 million tonnes of plastic are dumped in the ocean every year, killing marine life and entering the human food chain, UN Environment says.

 

Five Asian countries - China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand - account for up to 60 percent of plastic waste leaking into the seas, an Ocean Conservancy study found.

 

“As both creators and ‘victims’ of waste, the hotel industry has a lot to gain by making efforts to control their own waste and helping their guests do the same,” Ruffo said.

 

“We are seeing more and more resorts and chains start to take action, but there is a lot more to be done, particularly in the area of ensuring that hotel waste is properly collected and recycled,” she added.

 

CHANGING MINDS, CUTTING COSTS

 

Data on how much plastic is used by hotels and the hospitality industry is hard to find. But packaging accounts for up to 40 percent of an establishment’s waste stream, according to a 2011 study by The Travel Foundation, a UK-based charity.

 

Water bottles, shampoo bottles, toothbrushes and even food delivered by room service all tend to use throw-away plastics.

 

In the past, the hospitality industry has looked at how to use less water and energy, said Von Hernandez, global coordinator at the “Break Free From Plastic” movement in Manila.

 

Now hotels are turning their attention to single-use plastics amid growing public awareness about damage to oceans.

 

“A lot of hotels are doing good work around plastics”, adopting measures to eliminate or shrink their footprint, said Hernandez.

 

But hotels in Southeast Asia often have to contend with poor waste management and crumbling infrastructure.

 

“I’ve seen resorts in Bali that pay staff to rake the beach every morning to get rid of plastic, but then they either dig a hole, and bury it or burn it on the beach,” said Ruffo. “Those are not effective solutions, and can lead to other issues.”

 

Hotels should look at providing reusable water containers and refill stations, giving guests metal or bamboo drinking straws and bamboo toothbrushes, and replacing single-use soap and shampoo containers with refillable dispensers, experts said.

 

“Over time, this could actually lower their operational costs - it could give them savings,” said Hernandez. “It could help change mindsets of people, so that when they go back to their usual lives, they have a little bit of education.”

 

Back in Phuket, the hotel association is exploring ways to cut plastic waste further, and will host its first regional forum on environmental awareness next month.

 

The hope is that what the group has learned over the last two years can be implemented at other Southeast Asian resorts and across the wider community.

 

"If the 20,000 staff in our hotels go home and educate mum and dad about recycling or reusing, it's going to make a big difference," said Lark. (Reporting by Michael Taylor, Editing by Megan Rowling. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-8-17

[LivinginKata]

Phuket - Voted Number #2 beach world wide .... ? 

[Chassa]

Phuket is an island not a beach. Same as Bali.

[Old Croc]

The informed would be aware that all oceans are full of plastics and other debris. Not many islands nor beaches anywhere are exempt from getting some of this debris washed ashore following storm surges.

To me, Phuket has a slightly smaller pollution problem than Bali, and I believe, during the current cleanup, that they've discovered some hotels on Boracay have been pumping sewerage into the water systems. They have found so many problems there they may have to double the closure time of that Island.  

This post is about trying to get some of the worst polluters in Asia to change bad habits and use fewer one-use plastics and dispose of them properly. A positive attempt to educate some of the ignorant. 

However, I fear it's all just another talk fest.

Edited August 18, 2018 by Old Croc

[madmitch]

1 hour ago, Chassa said:

Phuket is an island not a beach. Same as Bali.

Try telling that to the organisation that came up with the rating. I think LiK has been here long enough to know that!

[connda]

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

With its white sandy beaches

[hotchilli]

Start with the manufactures of all the commodities that are packed into plastic & get them to change to bio-degradable alternatives!!

If customers can't buy plastic in the first place then it won't become a problem wherever it gets dumped eventually!!

[anon4637435435]

why do tourists need to be educated? Do they need to be taught that thais just put rubbish everywhere apart from a bin? Derrr!

[Get Real]

20 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Is this what is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world?

[LivinginKata]

Mai Khao Beach ...

 

 

[LivinginKata]

https://www.thephuketnews.com/foul-stench-of-sewage-in-black-water-canal-spurs-phuket-hotel-wastewater-inspections-68297.php#tLZclSE3icx1PcPy.97

 

[khunPer]

The problem is not plastic, but people using plastic, and the way they dispose of it. According to science, the major plastic pollution in sea comes from rivers, which also fit with my own local observations; I live beachfront and can see, how monsoon rain makes the local rivers flow lots of debris and plastic waste into the sea.

 

The plastic pollution on Phuket may not come from Thailand only, the stuff could easily have "traveled" quite some distance from other remote areas – that was clearly seen after the Japanese earthquake and tsunami – plastic waste on Phuket could for example originate from Indonesia's Sumatra, and other places.

 

Solution to plastic waste in and from sea is to change behavior of people on how to deposit their plastic waste, limiting water bottles and plastic bags at Phuket, might not that help much; however, every little bit of better behavior of course helps...?

 

To keep tourists it's important to keep beaches clean, but right after a monsoon storm if will be difficult, as there are lots of debris, and it will come in again and again over some days, so it takes little time. Presume it's monsoon time at Phuket during the "summer". Photos of a beach from that period looks awful – I know it very well from my "own" beach – however the same beach after it's cleaned is just like the true dream of a tropical island...?

Edited August 18, 2018 by khunPer

[cookieqw]

1 resort changes to glass bottles

nothing else in the article about what has been done only talk about what could be done be 

rubbish

[Stargeezr]

I see a new activity for a lot of prisoners, HMMM. How about it Mr, Top Cop and

big leaders of countries with garbage problems. A cheap labor force who could actually

help clean up a bit of the plastic waste on this filthy planet.