Bucuti and Tara Beach Resort is the Caribbean’s first and only certified carbon-neutral hotel. Located on the small island of Aruba, today, the property is pursuing carbon negative status. Since its inception, Bucuti and Tara Beach Resort (Bucuti & Tara) has had a high standard and placed the utmost importance on sustainability and care for the environment. This shows true until today; most notably within the resort’s extensive sustainability program which also entails waste management. The resort’s waste management approach extends from items such as single use plastics, to cardboard and food waste. The program has enabled the resort to successfully divert over 60% of its waste from landfills on a continuous basis. In the following pages you will learn about the different strategies Bucuti and Tara has employed to manage waste.

Introduction to Bucuti and Tara Beach Resort

Bucuti and Tara Beach Resort is a boutique resort, located on Eagle Beach in Oranjestad, Aruba. With an unwavering commitment to sustainability and community awareness, the resort continuously strives to find creative solutions. Aruba is driven by tourism and tourists, many of whom visit the island to enjoy the sea, sun, sand and thus predominantly our nature. For this reason, Mr. Ewald Biemans, owner and CEO of the resort, often says, “tourism is not the pillar of our economy, nature is – because without nature we would have no tourists”. When Mr. Biemans opened the resort, he had a vision to have a sustainable resort, and today the resort has a comprehensive sustainability program. As a result, Bucuti and Tara has been recognized by leading sustainability and environmental organizations and has succeeded in winning many prestigious awards for sustainability. To support its dedication to environmental preservation in operations and the community, Bucuti & Tara was named the most sustainable resort in the world by Green Globe Certification (Green Globe, 2016) - a global third party sustainability program for travel, tourism and business operations.

Waste Management

The success of Bucuti and Tara’s waste management are the several methods employed to reduce waste and divert as much as possible from the landfill. This is accomplished essentially through the basic steps of reducing, reusing and recycling wherever possible. Another important factor is forward planning and purchasing. Looking at the make-up of waste streams and conducting audits to understand what you are producing and bringing in through your purchasing is critical to managing and reducing the waste inputs within your operations. Measuring and reporting on a consistent and correct basis enhances the program and procedures, along with training and awareness amongst staff and basic information to guests, serves to increase performance. The resort manages all waste from cardboard to food waste. Here are the methods used:

• Purchasing in bulk. This works by reducing waste resulting from portion-controlled bottles. For example: Bucuti & Tara employs a dispenser system for toiletries that are refilled instead of purchasing countless tiny bottles that will be discarded.
• No single-use plastics or Styrofoam.
• In the employee cafeteria jam jars from the restaurant are used as drinking cups and all plates and cutlery come from the restaurant as its dishware is replaced.
• All drinks from the bar are served in either glass or reusable hard plastic at the beach with beach attendants collecting them after each use.
• Recycle bins are located in rooms and throughout the resort for guest use with signage.
• UPS batteries are recycled.
• The resort gives all guests a Bucuti-branded reusable insulated canteen and provides water stations throughout the resort.
• Cardboard is recycled with a local waste management company or reused throughout the property for signage.
• Glass is recycled with a local waste management company.
• Kitchen oil is picked up by a company that turns this into biodiesel.
• Food waste is picked up by a local farmer to use as pig feed.
• Food portions have also been reduced in order to minimize food waste.
• Food waste training. In a partnership with WWF, the resort recently conducted a training with staff on the environmental and financial implications of food waste and how to minimize waste (utilizing tools on hotelkitchen.org). This training resulted in a 30% reduction in food wasted before and during service to guests and the resort gives constant training to staff on how to minimize waste (utilizing tools on hotelkitchen.org) and explains what these types of waste represent, environmentally.
• Washable food covers are in place to reduce plastic wrap as food covering.
• Minimal packaging or container/crate take back policies are in place with suppliers (where possible) for packaging and refillable products to reduce unnecessary waste entering the resort.
• Linens are repurposed to laundry bags for guest use or donated to local foundations.
• Towels are repurposed to towels for the fitness center or donated to local foundations.
• During renovations, all furniture, fixtures, and appliances are sold or donated to local foundations. Garden waste is mulched to be reused as fertilizer.
• Many checklists converted to digital checklist to minimize paper waste. As the resort pursues carbon negativity status, one of its next goals is to become 100% paperless, thus eliminating paper waste.

Source: United Nations Environment Programme (2021). Compendium of case studies on solid waste management.