It’s so nice when a year of hard work (gloves on, waste separation, weighing, recording, storing, delivering, recycling, reusing or up-cycling is finally worth it with light at the end of the tunnel and a little voice saying ”towards’ zero waste is even more possible now’.
| MONTH | FRUIT / VEGETABLES | PLASTIC | PAPER | METAL | PROTIEN/STARCH/CARBS | |
| JAN | 2039 | 248 | 240 | 129 | 1360 | |
| FEB | 1968 | 168 | 171 | 69 | 1321 | |
| MAR | 2024 | 124 | 128 | 50 | 1504 | |
| APR | 2148 | 139 | 138 | 81 | 1678 | |
| MAY | 1268 | 96 | 112 | 40 | 1206 | |
| JUN | 1544 | 136 | 130 | 64 | 1254 | |
| JUL | 2083 | 144 | 124 | 45 | 1642 | |
| AUG | 2173 | 153 | 141 | 39 | 1627 | |
| SEP | 2871 | 153 | 225 | 76 | 2030 | |
| OCT | 3316 | 328 | 375 | 242 | 2044 | |
| NOV | 3580 | 279 | 382 | 209 | 2533 | |
| DEC | 3872 | 307 | 443 | 235 | 3218 | |
| 28886 | 2275 | 2609 | 1279 | 21417 | 56466 |
After a full year of waste data collection we have now been able to convert this data into visual references and a final outcome.
| Fruit and Veg Heavy Plastics Paper and combust Metal/Glass Protien/Starches/Carbs |
The above Bar graph shown the different waste types in relation to one another.
Fruit and Vegetable waste (Dark Blue) is the highest produced waste and also the highest used by us for compost making, feeding chickens and worms.
Proteins, Starches and Carbohydrates (Light Blue) is the second highest produced waste, by the end of this year our goal is to have ALL of this, as well as the Paper waste (Green) being used or recycled.
In small quantities we then have ‘heavy plastics’ (reddish/brown) of which we use all LDPE and HDPE varieties in the Recycling Centre at the Marine Education Centre. Much of the plastic we produce is collected daily off the beach, any useful recyclables from this will also go into the shredder and extruder to make something new.
This leaves us with low volumes of Metals (purple) which is sent for recycling with any other heavy plastics or Glass (broken/food jars or bottles) that we can’t use, reuse, recycle or up-cycle in the hotel, restaurant and the farm.
Results
From the Data collected in 2019 The Sands at Nomad has used, recycled, reused, repurposed 57.5% of waste produced.
Places for improvement are in finding solutions to the Protiens, Starches and Carbohydrates (+-30% of our waste) Paper (which should be recycled and not incinerated), and E waste*. Watch this space.
NB. The charts shown in this Blog post show data from The Sands At Nomad’s Boutique hotel as well as the Beach Bar restaurant which has arguably the highest customer numbers of any restaurant on the south coast of Kenya.
*Further waste types we have been collecting and stock piling in a hope of a eco-friendlier solution are E-waste (light bulbs, printer cartridges, electronics) and Hazardous waste (paint tins, filters, compressors). In the near future this will need to be sent to a company in Nairobi as all licences Hazardous waste collection and management companies on the south coast were closed by the Governor. This suggests that other institutions are sending their toxic waste to landfills. A truly Horrific thought.
Once they're used, the goods are simply dumped in a landfill or destroyed in an incinerator. In contrast, a zero waste approach conserves natural resources and reduces pollution from extraction, manufacturing and disposal. Bring Your Own Bottle. Stash Some Cutlery. Make Some Rags.eco store adelaide