Make guest recycling easy for better compliance
13 January 2011
A key component for green certification? Hotel recycling—and in particular— guest recycling.
Consider a few easy steps when you set up your guestroom recycling program to make the payoff simple in the end.
Pick your provider
“We make it very easy on our guests,” said Fred Euler, GM of the Hyatt Regency Dallas. “We have bins throughout our public areas and in our guestrooms. But unlike having double bins— one for trash, one for recycling, we have a single bin.”
“We make it very easy on our guests,” said Fred Euler, GM of the Hyatt Regency Dallas. “We have bins throughout our public areas and in our guestrooms. But unlike having double bins— one for trash, one for recycling, we have a single bin.”
The Hyatt Regency works closely with local recycling company Vista Fibres to offer single-stream recycling (also known as co-mingled recycling). The hotel staff takes the waste/ recycling product from each guestroom, and only needs to sort out the glass from everything else, which is done on each floor. From that point, there is easy transition to the recycling compactors on the hotel grounds. “We do all the work for the guest,” Euler said. “But they can feel good about recycling while here.”
To accommodate groups and meetings, the hotel puts out additional recycling bins. So far this year, the hotel has recycled more than 83 tons.
“In the year and a half since we’ve started this program, it’s amazing the recycling tonnage that would have been wasted or trashed,” Euler said.
Make it simple
For the Element Houston Vintage Park, a LEED-Silver property, guest recycling is integrated into the design and production of the building. The guestroom recycling bins are built into the wood casegoods with a simple six- by six-inch sign stating “Recycling.”
For the Element Houston Vintage Park, a LEED-Silver property, guest recycling is integrated into the design and production of the building. The guestroom recycling bins are built into the wood casegoods with a simple six- by six-inch sign stating “Recycling.”
“The Element has a European feel with clean, contemporary lines,” said GM Tim Douglas. “So obviously the recycling options needed to fit in with the design of the hotel.”
The hotel allows guests to put anything they feel is appropriate into the recycling receptacle, which is next to the trash bin. There is some sorting on the back end, then the waste is sorted into the hotel’s trash and to its single-stream recycling receptacle.
“It’s very little work for us to do,” Douglas said. “Since the recycling is next to each trash bin, they can both be picked up together. When it is easy for guests to recycle, they want to take that initiative.”
Encourage commitment
The LEED-Gold Fairmont Pittsburgh, which opened on March 29, is part of Three PNC Plaza, one of the nation’s largest green, mixed-use developments. The hotel takes a basic approach to its guest recycling operations: it has committed to recycle and reuse as much guest-generated content as possible.
The LEED-Gold Fairmont Pittsburgh, which opened on March 29, is part of Three PNC Plaza, one of the nation’s largest green, mixed-use developments. The hotel takes a basic approach to its guest recycling operations: it has committed to recycle and reuse as much guest-generated content as possible.
Since it’s a luxury property, the recycling receptacles are marked with a tasteful note: “For recyclables,” said GM Len Czarnecki. The guest decides what should go in the appropriate bin, and the hotel uses a single-stream recycling provider.
“We intentionally partnered with such a provider so it’s easy for our guests and easy for our staff,” Czarnecki said. “That allows for a high compliance rate since everything is so effortless.”
Another key component to having a successful recycling program is staff buy-in, he said. At the Fairmont Pittsburgh, recycling is emphasized during the orientation process and that attitude is strongly instilled into the hotel’s culture. “Our staff is very passionate about it—our colleagues are all on board and that’s what it’s all about,” Czarnecki said.
Originally published on our US sister publication Hotel and Motel Management
It's amazing how so many people still don't have the habit of recycling since there are now so many options around so that they can do it with little to no effort. I for one even when I moved used a junk removal DC program, so I don't understand the ignorance of some.