Treshnish Waste Management
Regular visitors to Treshnish will know we are committed to the Green Tourism Business Scheme and have held a Gold Award for over 20 years. We are currently working on the new online Audit and one ongoing task is to monitor our waste more closely.
An island issue
Waste is a big problem for the island. The landfill site north of Tobermory is nearly capacity and there are no plans to find another location. Waste will then be transported off the island. This cannot be good for the environment in any way.
40% reduction initially
In 2010 we built the Recycling Shed to make it easier to store the recycling and for our guests to seperate the recycling properly. As our ability to recycling improved the amount of landfill waste decreased initially but about 40%.
I will confess, we haven’t been very good at monitoring it recently. There always seems to be a lot else to do and not enough helpers to help do it – and Somerset who does the dustbins is always in a hurry!
Monitoring
Monitoring is crucial for many reasons so we are making an effort to record how much cottage rubbish we send to landfill each month, and how much recycling we collect.
What goes where
We have commercial waste collections throughout the season. Glass is collected by the Council too as is paper. Our plastic and tin recycling is picked up by MESS – Mull Environmentally Sound Solutions – in an electric van. We collect batteries and take to the Council ourselves to avoid them going to landfill.
Compost
We have small compost bins in each cottage. This helps us make great compost for the kitchen garden. We do not have a hot composter so cannot accept cooked foods or meats in the compost bins. Growing food using compost made from food waste is a simple but direct and very positive solution to one waste issue and we are grateful that nearly all our guests use the compost bins!
The Recycling Basket
In the past we have relied on guests bringing the recycling to the shed in whatever receptacle they have available. This summer I commissioned Leen to make a willow basket for each cottage, in which guests can store their recycling and bring it down to the shed. It has been wonderful to see guests doing just this. One couple walked all the way down from Haunn with theirs last week! Thank you Leen for making us these beautiful baskets.
Solutions
What we need to do is reduce what we use and recycle whatever we can. This is a policy across the business. Ensuring we buy in bulk to waste less packaging; utilise and reuse whatever we can; make things last longer; avoid needless replacements in the cottages (whilst keeping the cottages homely and welcoming and comfortable).
Feedback
We welcome feedback from guests as to what we can do to keep on improving – we can input your ideas to the Treshnish Waste Management Plan.
