Total waste management using cleaner production and industrial ecology principles in Sri Lankan hotel sector

Abstract

Hotel sector is one of the main revenue earners in current Sri Lankan economy. This sector is rapidly growing post war period. Since tourists arrive Sri Lanka comes for diverse reasons hotels are located in all around the country to attracting these tourist groups and mostly this industry is located adjacent to environmentally sensitive places such as virgin forests, beaches and archeologically significant locations. Due to this number of protests and demonstrations also happened in certain places for opposing this industry expecting that there would be environmental damages sometime ago. Therefore, proper environmental management practices are of paramount importance. Waste disposal is one major area which needs to be addressed first and foremost. Waste generated in this industry can be divided into solid waste and waste water. Furthermore, solid waste can be divided into biodegradable and non degradable waste. Waste water is generated from the laundry, kitchen, toilet /bathroom cleaning etc. Some of the waste categories depend on the occupancy of the hotels and some depend on the reception functions which are held in hotels (ex. Kitchen waste generated after wedding functions etc). However, it is impossible to minimize this type of waste generation or to educate the guests on waste generated issues due to the nature of the industry and high competition in this sector. Therefore, best possible options remains are to have proper waste management system to run this industry in sustainable manner. If there is a way to reuse waste generated then there will not be much impact to the industry. Conversely Cleaner Production (CP) and Industrial Ecology (IE) principles are being used successfully in manufacturing sector for many years to address the waste generated in those industries. Hence in this research these two concepts are used in local hotel sector to manage waste generated. that shows that diesel and LP gas consumption can be reduced considerably. There are number of ways waste is reused in productive manner. Out of them energy harnessing from biogas generators are significant. The biogas generator which converts all biodegradable waste generated to useful flammable biogas Methane (CH4). This gas is used completely as a fuel to pre-heat water which is used in steam boiler for laundry purposes thereby reduces diesel consumption for boiler firing considerably. Only percentage of waste water is used for biogas generation, rest of the wastewater and wastewater mixed with chemicals are treated in treatment plant and treated water is used for gardening purposes and organic farming and some studies are carried out to use them for water fountains etc. Furthermore, non-degradable wastes are segregated at the point of generation and sell them for recycling purposes. A pilot project is carrying out in one of the leading hotels in Kandy and preliminary studies were done with already established hotel which has bio gas generator in Uva province. Results reveals that shows that diesel and LP gas consumption can be reduced considerably.