By: Maryse Dees
What started as a circular concept for restaurants to minimize food waste, is spilling over from the kitchen into the guest environment. The Resort in Seminyak is dedicated to a zero-waste philosophy that covers not just food and beverages but also architecture, interiors and design. The company is proud to have achieved to reduce their waste going to landfills from 51 percent in 2017 to just three per cent now. Their simple mantra is, “Good times, Do Good”.
Walking down the beaches of Bali, you will definitely find plastic water bottles, plastic bags and other single-use pollutants. Because Bali doesn’t have a proper waste management infrastructure, the management realized it is in their power to do something for sustainability, to process their own waste successfully. Just a few visitors would know of their waste minimization efforts going on behind the scenes. They work together with world-class designers with similar enthusiasm for waste minimization. This way, the resort proves that luxury and environmental responsibility can coexist.
The façade of the famous Beach Club is crafted using 6,000 upcycled antique shutters sourced from around Java. Potato Head Studios is composed of mostly recycled materials, including discarded bricks from Potato Head Suites used in the cement, recycled plastic bottles woven into ceilings, and material waste from the construction process used to build the floor at the Circle Store and Amphitheatre. Each room features furniture and amenities made from recycled plastic and planet-friendly materials.
Furthermore, supporting and giving back to the locals is a continued focus for the brand. They support local farmers and producers by using locally sourced food, they support social ventures to grow and develop innovations that help manage waste responsibility and they support local artisans. Potato Head’s next project is to build a bigger collective to ease Bali’s waste burden. They are hoping to open a waste centre in Batubelig Banjar in 2024!
In order to achieve zero-waste the resort uses a waste separation method which minimizes their contribution to the landfills. They start by asking their vendors to never use single-use plastic in their deliveries, they rather invest in reusable crates which can be exchanged and encourage them to use banana leaves to wrap the products. They also separate the waste as early as possible. This ensures that waste stays in the right condition to be recycled. Each guest checking in to the Studios receives a zero-waste kit, to reduce the use of single-use plastic. Guests and tourists at Potato Head’s on-site Waste Lab can get educational workshops to learn more about how they can recycle themselves, so they can apply some of this knowledge when they get back home.
All with all, the future will require guests and tourists to also become active participants in environmental efforts. Let’s do it all together!
