Constance Ephelia Seychelles: Steady Progress at Green Resort

Constance Ephelia Seychelles adheres to a comprehensive sustainable management plan to limit the resort’s environmental impact on its pristine natural surroundings. Markus Ultsch-Unrath, Health, Safety & Environment Project Manager at the resort provides an insight into Constance Ephelia’s green achievements.

Our waste management is steadily progressing with a recyclable diversion rate of 14%, which is about 10 tonnes of recycled waste per month. To reduce our food waste some buffet options were replaced with an a la carte menu that resulted in approximately 1,000kg less food waste per month. Our plastic bottle and aluminum can recycling program is ongoing and we’ve reached a total amount of 350,000 plastic bottles and 130,000 aluminum cans since we started recycling in September 2014.

Other recycling options are very limited in the Seychelles, yet we managed to recycle 1,940 plastic gallon containers (25 litre), 634 Club Car batteries, 5,540 kg of glass waste, and 5,750 kg of scrap metal and electronic waste material. Around 500 kg of green waste is produced on a daily basis, which is converted to compost with our wood chipper. The compost is used primarily within the property grounds and due to the large amount produced, even given to local farmers. Furthermore we piloted the initiative to convert used cooking oil into biodiesel. The project is still in its trial phase but with our 500 litres of cooking oil per month, it will be delightful to see the oil get another life – running an engine.

Retired towels, bed sheets, tablecloths and uniforms are given to our tailor and, depending on their original condition, re-used as either buffet sheets, pillow protectors, cleaning cloths, or housekeeping dusters. If the condition of the retired cloth is still relatively good it will be donated to a local charity instead. Recipients include elderly people living at home or an orphanage in the community. With these great initiatives we will greatly reduce the amount of waste to landfills.

In 2017, the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change introduced a ban on the importation of plastic items such as plates, cutlery, take away boxes, plastic carrier bags etc. Before the ban of plastic items was introduced we were already using some biodegradable plastic items, but recently we implemented a full selection of items for our guests and staff. All plastic items including plates, cups and take away boxes were replaced with bagasse, which is a processed sugarcane carton material. The remaining plastic items such as bin liners, cutlery and straws were replaced with biodegradable plastic which is compostable. For our guests, we also have cutlery and cocktail swizzle sticks made out of bamboo. This change of items may not necessarily reduce our waste, but it will reduce the amount of non-degradable plastic transferred to landfill.

Contact

Markus Ultsch-Unrath
Health, Safety, Environment Projects Manager
Constance Ephélia Seychelles
Port Launay
Mahé
SEYCHELLES
phone +(248) 439 5046
fax: +(248) 439 5001
email [email protected]
web www.epheliaresort.com