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#Post#: 492--------------------------------------------------
Foreign Guests - Environmentalism
By: Generic Date: April 2, 2024, 9:40 am
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I'm going to preface this a little bit in that I don't want
people taking it personally, because it's far from it. It's more
observational of a difference between views. I have no way to
knowing how you personally deal with it, or if you deal with
foreign travellers at all. And of course what your city does in
regards to enviromentalism.
What I will say is that where I live we are required to recycle
and compost. We have 3 different bins and we can be fined for
not composting. Also, the city where I live has specific rules
for restaurants on what they can and can't use and give out as
well.
Just came back from a trip and I was sort of shocked at how much
plastic and disposables were still being used. The only reusable
at breakfast were the mugs. The plates and cutlery were plastic.
Yes, I admit it wasn't a B&B, the big city we went for isn't a
place where you find a B&B and the other place we stayed at was
about the EV charger that was available. But still, it's likely
less expensive in the long run to use plates, cutlery
(silverware if you prefer), glassed and mugs than all that
paper.
But even if you are using paper... paper plates and the leftover
food are compost to many of us now, not trash, not garbage.
Especially in a city that commercially composts... even meat,
bones, anything organic will become rich soil in a few weeks.
Where I live, the restaurants are no longer allowed to use
styrofoam, it's completely unrecyclable. They aren't allowed to
give you plastic cutlery. Instead you generally get either
compostable which is pressed from some starch, but more often
than not now, you get bamboo wood cutlery. Goes right into the
compost. The tops of the coffee cups are made from a compostable
paper. The plates, the bags and some restaurants use aluminum,
which is 100% recyclable... you don't even have to wash it. It
goes right into the recycling to be re-smelted.
So, why am I saying this? Because while all those disposable
items look normal to you, we have slowly been changing our
habits to save the planet elsewhere and all these things look
very different to those of us from other places. We have 2 or 3
garbage cans (waste, recycling and compost) and we don't expect
to see so much waste/garbage as there was in the past. Heck, the
plastic straw (with one exception) isn't even legal here
anymore.
For the B&B, we have dispensers for shampoo, conditioner, shower
gel and body conditioner (actually truth be told, we also have
one for mouthwash, but that's my own bugaboo). We use plates and
cutlery. For the rooms, they have either real glass, or silicone
reusable glasses.
For the bathrooms, we used to use the paper glasses. Guests went
through SO many. Compostable, but they put them in the garbage
so we would have to pick them out to compost. We switched to
silicone... a few of those "walked" and so we replaced them with
collapsible silicone cups. Those work great and stay in house.
We just don't give them the covers! We wash them and leave them
upside down. They are strong enough for bathroom use, but too
weak to walk out of the bathroom with them. Bonus... if they
drop them, they don't break... but more importantly, they don't
chip the sink! Something like...
[img]
HTML https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/uCYAAOSwEAtdLu~Y/s-l1200.webp[/img]
The hardest time we have is explaining to guests to bring down
their leftovers for us to deal with. Had one lady last fall
leave us a giant bag of coffee grounds! Should have never ended
up in a refill... in a month it would have been part of the food
cycle for a farmer to use to grow food.
Anyway, I figured I would mention this. For one, I think we
should have a bit of stewardship. Let others see that it can be
done. But also, in case you deal with a lot of foreign guests
that they may view certain practices differently and wasteful.
#Post#: 494--------------------------------------------------
Re: Foreign Guests - Environmentalism
By: gillumhouse Date: April 2, 2024, 2:36 pm
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Contrary to the opinion of my original insurance man, people DO
come to Shinnston AMD from all over the world. I use chargers
(yes, they are plastic but I use them until they get ugly),
china and Fostoria goblets, and silver plate cutlery and cloth
napkins. Over and above the elegance of using these, it costs a
LOT less to just (UGH!) wash dishes and do the laundry.
Even when I have had guests for a few days, I put out less trash
than my neighbors every week. Another advantage of buying a pig
and having a deer harvested is I do not have all that packaging
in my trash same goes for baking "from scratch". I SO use
zip-lock bags for the sausage when I make it, but for years now,
I have used 6x6 pastry boxes for the "care packages" guests
leave with. I do have a composter. I do not go bananas about it,
but I do conserve. (Newspapers get saved for my potter - he
wraps his pottery in newspaper for shipping.
#Post#: 495--------------------------------------------------
Re: Foreign Guests - Environmentalism
By: JimBoone Date: April 3, 2024, 7:33 am
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Requirements are not nearly as strict here in NC but we do try.
Each guest room has a recycle can and a sign as to what IS and
IS NOT to be recycled. We can manage paper, plastic, and metal,
cut our trash flow by half but adds the job of carrying off the
recycled materials ourselves.
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