Hilton turns off the plastic tap

Celebrating Christmas last December, the Hilton Colombo took on the initiative to put to good use the single-use plastic bottles that are used and disposed of by the hotel. With the help of its own staff, Hilton Colombo recycled 37,000 bottles to make 700 Christmas baubles to illuminate the trees around the hotel during the festive month. After the season, the dismantled baubles were sent to recycling plants to be put to good use without being disposing of in landfills. Daily FT sat down with Hilton Colombo General Manager Manesh Fernando to know more details about the project. Following are excerpts:

By Ruwandi Gamage

Q: How and why did you decide to recycle the plastic bottles at the hotel?

The Hilton hotel chain in South East Asia has a major initiative called ‘Travel with Purpose,’ which looks to be free of single-use plastic. 

I had a design motivation to do such a project. When we brainstormed about the best way to execute it, we had the most cost-effective way to get there. Practically it made sense, since the resources were freely available. Then our guys worked around it and became creative in getting to that design intent.  

We were actually inspired by seeing a similar decoration done using glass in the Singapore Airport. We were able to get the same effect using recycled plastic bottles. Most of the bottles were those used in the hotel. During the making of the baubles, we realised that we were short of plastic bottles so we purchased plastic bottles that were going to be disposed of; some of them were even rejects.

Then we took it to another level – we took all of the décor, the plastic bottles, and sent it off to two companies, one that recycles them to make brushes and the other which recycles them to make sports or swim shorts. I believe that some of these beach shorts will be showcased during the Colombo Fashion Week and will also be on the ramp.

For the time being, doing what we did made super sense. In terms of the environment, we have reduced plastic going into landfills and our oceans. I saw some data that we as an island, with all our major rivers going directly into sea, we send a lot plastic waste out there. I think if we all were a bit more mindful in making sure that whatever plastic we use is sent off for recycling, we save the environment and we are able to look after it much better. 

Q: What was the message you wanted to give to people with this project?

Though I must say that I’m not the first person to recycle single-use plastic bottles, I want to make people aware of it, to advocate such actions. Maybe people don’t want to talk about it because they think it doesn’t look elegant, but to me the end result and the impact we had was incredible. I believe that awareness would encourage others to do similar projects with the little resources we have in the country and not throw away and add to the landfills. 

The big problem with plastic is that it is single use. When you make it multi-use, that problem is reduced or almost removed. Elimination of the use of plastic would be somewhat of a difficult task, because there are so many advantages with plastic, such as it doesn’t break easily, it’s easily transportable and it’s very cost-effective. We wanted to take an initiative to solve the problem at least temporarily, because we still use plastic water bottles instead of converting to glass in the hotel, because of our volumes. Ultimately the plan is to move to glass but I’m still checking the numbers to make sure. Whilst it is an environmentally-friendly option, it also needs to make sense in terms of cost. 

The big problem with plastic is that it is single use. When you make it multi-use, that problem is reduced or almost removed

There’s an abundance of resources in Sri Lanka and with a bit of creativity we can do a lot for almost no cost. Whilst we are looking after the environment, it’s about reusing things and being creative and making more use out of even something as small a plastic bottle. Therefore, by reusing, you save on carbon footprint and oil usage.

Even now we continue to support the recycling plants where we still give the used plastic water bottles in the hotel to the brush-making and swim short-making companies.

Q:How did you encourage the staff to participate in this project?

We have a team which always gets together and brainstorms about what we will do for different events and promotions. There’s about seven to eight of us who always sit together and dream about things, another team which designs these ideas and another team which executes them. We all work in cohesion. Sometimes when things don’t happen, there’s someone who motivates and takes charge. 

When we started this project, every week we calculated our progress of making these baubles and we would measure if we were ahead of schedule or behind and work accordingly. Our teams are always passionate to work in such projects because it is not just doing something to celebrate, it is also for a cause.

Q: Will you be continuing this project?

Yes, absolutely; maybe not in the same design but definitely with the same initiative. 

For instance, if I imported those baubles, I’m sure it would’ve cost me at least Rs. 5 million, including tax and freight charges. This project only cost us about Rs. 300,000. This is because we had to purchase the remainder of plastic bottles we needed and also because we paid a small incentive for every bauble the team produced for the man hours. 

Three years ago we did our décor with plastic cups. It is all design-driven; you have a design and you see what you can do to get there. Maybe next time we might recycle linen waste. First, we want something done and you find sustainable ways of doing it, such as using something that will be thrown away.We destroy the environment without even realising it. Entrepreneurship is good but sometimes we forget the limits because there’s no proper control. We need to stop and think the impact we have on the planet. We really need to be more caring about the environment because it is the most precious gift we have.

There’s two ways that we can tackle this issue of single-use plastic. One is extreme government control through the use of law. However, the long-term solution would be to educate the younger generation to respect the environment and each other and to be thoughtful about what we do.