JW Marriott New Delhi Aerocity has started their plastic free journey with India’s first AI (Artificial Intelligence) enabled water treatment plant. Every plastic bottle will be replaced by reusable glass water bottles which will be manufactured in-house with highly treated alkaline, mineralised water. Nitesh Gandhi, General Manager, of the hotel, talks more on the concept.
Please explain #ThankYouForTomorrow initiative.
Imagine a present, where besides the literature & culture, we inherited plastic bottles from Shakespeare. Sounds unbelievable, right? Not really, because it takes about 450 years for a single bottle to decompose. Had plastic existed then, we might have been sipping off from the bottles of the 17th Century. And trust me, the threat is bigger than its utility.
This thought drove us to our biggest initiative so far: embarking on our journey to being plastic free. Our campaign titled #ThankYouForTomorrow is an initiative towards building an eco-friendly future. On September 9th, 2019, the hotel pledged to launch this sustainable initiative that eliminates all the plastic bottles from the hotel. These plastic bottles are replaced by reusable glass water bottles which will be manufactured in-house with highly treated alkaline, mineralized water.
How much energy are you expecting to save?
The hotel used approximately 17,00,000 plastic bottles in last year. These plastic bottles get dumped at the landfills and garbage heaps, now formed as mountains, vandalizing the land and air, and causing a serious threat to our environment. With the size and scale of hotel like ours, we fully cognized the fact that we have to start a process in which we can fulfill our responsibility towards our ecosystem. The in-house set-up of this Water treatment plant will help us completely banish the single-use plastic bottles from the hotel.
Do you also raise amongst your guests towards the need for ‘sustainability’?
The guests who stay with us at JW Marriott New Delhi are well-traversed, fully aware about the threats to our nature. We have implemented in-house communications to deliver this message of conservation to our guests. The social media accounts of JW Marriott New Delhi Aerocity are running this heartfelt campaign through a story that depicts our future with videos performed by kids giving out this consequential message.
Are there more practices in your hotel which are eco-friendly?
Plastic straws have already been banned in the hotel since last year. Our teams have relentlessly worked towards this initiative to make it a success and we believe an environmentally-responsible way of doing business is a never-ending process. My team and I are working on implementing more practices into action which we will reveal with the course of time after its completion.
These days, from hotels to airports, everyone is going plastic- free and is becoming eco-friendly. To what extent is it possible, though?
Single-use plastic should be completely banned and it is totally replaceable by switching onto materials which are reusable, vis-à-vis the glass bottles in place of single-use plastic bottles, or at least using biodegradable plastic wherever possible. While we have taken the first step, we need the support of our partners and fraternity to ensure we make a meaningful difference for the generations to follow.
