WASTE REDUCTION AND RECYCLING IN U.S. HOTELS AND RESTAURANTS

Waste reduction and recycling programs, which were once attractive only to manufacturing businesses, have begun to appeal to other types of industries. Hotels and restaurants across the United States have begun to look at their waste as a controllable expense and are developing methods to reduce that expense by employing integrated waste management strategies.

Integrated waste management uses a combination of methods tailored for an individual business' waste management needs. Waste reduction (not using something or minimizing its use), and reuse (using the same material more than once) are preferred waste management methods because they eliminate a significant amount of waste from being generated. Recycling is the next preferred method for managing waste. Recycling takes products that would otherwise become waste, and turns them into other useful products. Although waste reduction and reuse are methods for preventing useful materials from entering the waste stream, reduction and reuse are often difficult to measure and difficult to implement on a large scale. As a result, hotels are more likely to use recycling to minimize waste than source reduction or reuse (McClain 1995).

The cost of recycling as a part of an integrated waste management plan is a function of the total amount of waste generated. Recycling reduces pressure on traditional waste management methods such as landfilling (solid waste dumped in a designated site and covered with layers of soil) and incineration. However, proponents argue that by relieving industry from the need to pay for the full cost of disposing of their solid waste (by government subsidized waste collection, landfills and even recycling programs), industries lack incentives to find alternative methods to reduce the amount of waste they generate--the more cost effective and efficient approach (Jenkins 1993).

Although business and the environment have long been considered at odds, economic decisions motivated by a demand for higher productivity, lower costs, and bigger profit margins, can also benefit the environment (Winter 1996). This is evident in the hospitality industry. The increasing cost of waste disposal has created a financial incentive nationwide for hotels and restaurants to find new or alternative methods to manage their solid waste, or reduce the amount of waste generated.