Recycling at holiday accommodation

This Easter, join our campaign to get your holiday accommodation to recycle!

Next time you stay at a caravan park, unit or hotel, can you find any mention in the room of separating your recycling?

On a driving holiday from Brisbane to Coffin Bay in South Australia, we've stayed at all manner of accommodation venues.   At nearly every place, there was nothing in the rooms or guest information about what to do with paper, bottles, cans and plastics.  There was generally just one all-in bin in the room.  At each place, we saved our paper and bottles and took them to the reception on checkout.  Most of the hosts were bemused, but happy to take them and promised to put them into the correct recycling.

What worried us, was that many guests would simply put all their rubbish into the one waste bin.  Imagine how much recycling is lost to landfill across all the holiday accommodation in Australia??  Perhaps the venues do separate the waste out the back somewhere - but I'm guessing that would be unlikely, plus it would be too late for paper that had since been mixed up with food scraps in the bin ...

We found only two places that did encourage the guests to separate bottles, and they were small operations in South Australia.  I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that South Australia has a bottle deposit refund scheme? If so, good on the venues for taking advantage of some additional income.  It is interesting how some financial reward is a great incentive -- one that is long overdue in the other States of Australia.

That said, at the "eco-certified" Wilpena Pound Resort in South Australia there was nothing in the rooms about what to do with paper, bottles and cans etc.  Again, just one bin in the room.

So this Easter, how about separating your recycling and taking it to reception on checkout?  And while you're there encourage them to put recycling bins in the rooms or information on where to put the recyclables.

The above picture shows the bottle recycling bins at Southern Blue Apartments, Port Lincoln.  There were bins under the sink in the room as well as outside in the car park.  And on arrival we were asked to recycle - awesome.

Don't forget to take your water bottle and KeepCup on holiday too, so you can reduce the amount of recycling and waste in any case!

Ideas for Easter

Painting Easter Eggs with Natural Paints
GLOB arts and crafts paints are made from fruits, vegetables, flowers and spices with natural food-grade ingredients - like Berry Blue, Pomegranate, Basil Green and Plum Purple. They even smell fresh & fruity!
Art pigments (colors) are commonly made from petrochemicals and ingredients are rarely listed on the packaging.  Arts and crafts paints often contain lead, cadmium, and other toxic ingredients like formaldehyde, one of the most common paint preservatives.

Here's a quick recipe for using GLOB paints to colour Easter Eggs.
Mix 1/4 tsp of GLOB powder with a 1/4 tsp of water using a brush.  Brush on eggs with a thin layer of paint. Dab off excess with a tissue. Set to dry.
For darker colors apply a second coat. Or, repaint over with a different color to make interesting hues.
Choose from the Glob Paint Kit or individual sachets.

Dyeing eggs using fruit, vegetables and spices
Boil eggs in a mixture of fruits, vegetables and spices found around the home to create lovely natural coloured eggs.  Adding vinegar to the water produces a deeper colour.

Dyeing eggs red has a special religious significance at Easter.  Create red using one of these:
Lots of Red Onions Skins
Canned Cherries with Juice
Pomegranate Juice
Raspberries

This About.com website has a great table with ideas on how to create different dye colours like yellow, blue, green and pink with all sorts of natural ingredients.  Some ingredients can just be soaked in cold water, but some need to be boiled to bring out the colour.

Fairtrade chocolate
 
A little indulgence can go a long way by supporting Fairtrade chocolate.    Choose from fairtrade, organic, Australian-made and vegan chocolate bars, chocolate eggs and bunnies!
 
Organic Cotton Maud n Lil Bunny

Velvety soft delicious organic cotton bunnies that are beautifully made from certified organic cotton with a natural filling.  They are designed in Australia and hand made in a socially compliance audited factory to the highest quality, health and safety standards.

Chicken love

Book: Zen and the Art of Raising Chickens

'Chicken Little' greeting card