Ways in which the Hotel Patara Viewpoint plans to focus on reducing the use of single use plastic in 2018.
At the Patara Viewpoint we have always thought of ourselves as an environmentally friendly hotel, practicing responsible and sustainable tourism. However in the light of all the recent discussions emerging in the media about plastic and the damage it is doing to our world, we realize that we need to make further efforts and changes to reduce, in particular, the use of single use plastics.
2018 is the year we plan to take more action.
The hotel is situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty. The beach is one of the longest sandy beaches in the Mediterranean and has been voted by the Sunday Times as one of the top ten beaches in the world. It is a protected area and a designated Nature reserve as the Loggerhead turtles still come to lay their eggs here. The old harbour in the archaeological area (now a lake) is an important stop off for many migrating birds. In fact the entire Lycian coast is an area of breath taking natural beauty. The coastline between Göçek and Olympos/Çirali is littered with stunning bays and hidden beaches and is backed by the majestic mountains, home to many rare plant species.
If we are to protect this environment we need to take action NOW!. There have always been local people who want to protect and look after the environment and they are still very active. There are a number of world renowned organisations that are involved in the protection of Patara beach as it is one of the few remaining the nesting grounds of the Logger head turtle. The people of Patara have taken part in community beach cleans and other recycling initiatives, but businesses such as ourselves need to take greater action in reducing our use of plastics and plastic waste. It is our duty and responsibility to protect this area for future generations. We will be working together with the Eco group in Kalkan (Read more on their facebook page Eco Kalkan) and with local businesses in Gelemiş (Patara) to come up with ideas of ways to reduce the amount of plastic waste we produce and to find ways of recycling any waste that is recyclable. John Fed (Editor of the online news website www.kalkanturkishnews.com )has been very pro active within this group and has written two very interesting and informative articles on the ways in which we hope to start to tackle this enormous problem. http://kalkan.turkishlocalnews.com/portal/kalkan-news/540179-eco-friendly-kalkan-recycling-and-reducing-single-use-plastic
The steps we aim to take at the hotel Patara Viewpoint
Reduce the amount of single use plastics.
Plastic straws are a perfect example of a single use plastic that is used for an average of 20 minutes and then discarded. Once it is discarded it will remain on our planet for hundreds of years to come. If it finds its way into our oceans it can cause unbelievable damage. Many of you may have seen the very distressing film that swept the internet of a turtle with a straw stuck up its nose. We need to tackle the threat of single use plastic that threatens disaster to our planet.
The steps we plan to take:
- We will no longer automatically provide drinking straws and where a straw is requested we are aiming to provide an alternative to plastic straws such as bamboo, metal or paper. (We have been impressed with this initiative set up in Cornwall http://finalstrawcornwall.co.uk )
- We will no longer provide small plastic olive forks with a plate of olives but will provide wooden cocktail sticks in place of the single use plastic forks
- We will continue to provide wooden toothpicks and will not provide plastic cocktail sticks wrapped in cellophane
- We will continue to provide olive oil soaps in the hotel rooms. We did at one time consider providing small bottles of shampoo and shower gel packaged with our logo but quickly came to the conclusion that these small bottles provide an inordinate amount of waste.
- In the long term we are planning to provide glass water bottles which can be recycled / re used in place of single use plastic bottles. These will no doubt be slightly more expensive but we will be researching the most cost effective option
Recycling:
- We will provide recycling boxes in all of our self catering properties with instructions of what waste can go into them. These will be emptied and taken to the appropriate recycling points by us. Currently the closest recycling points are in Kalkan, but soon we hope to receive at least one recycling basket in Gelemiş.
- We will provide re-usable shopping bags in each of our self catering properties for guests to use for shopping whilst they are staying with us. Although an initiative here in Turkey was supposed to start in January 2018, where free plastic bags would no longer be provided by shops and supermarkets, this has still to take effect. We feel we should lead by example and therefore refuse the plastic bags offered by the shops and instead provide our own.
- We will provide recycling bins at the hotel for guests to use to dispose of recyclable waste.
- We will educate our staff about recycling and reducing the use of single use plastics.
We have a long way to go to stop using plastics, but we firmly believe that by taking a few small steps at a time we can make a difference. We hope that all of our guests will support us in our initiatives and we will always welcome any ideas of ways in which we can reduce and eventually eliminate our use of plastics and non recyclable waste.