Caravelle Hotel in Saigon Launches Refillable Glass Bottle Programme

The Caravelle hotel in Saigon has launched a refillable glass bottle programme, part of the hotel's ongoing efforts to reduce its environmental footprint.

From now on, plastic water bottles will no longer be provided in guest rooms or meeting rooms. They have been replaced with reusable glass bottles custom-made in Vietnam for the Caravelle and filled with filtered water. Each guest corridor now features a refill station, where visitors can top up their bottle, while every other floor has been outfitted with a staff refill station for the property's housekeepers to use for replenishing daily for guests.

Michael Robinson, the Caravelle's General Manager, said that work on the initiative began four months ago, and took some time to perfect since Vietnam has no formal plastic recycling programme.

"We were really trying to find a way to be able to remove plastic bottles from guest rooms and replace it with something recycled," he said. "There is no company or system in place, so we realized we had to do it ourselves."

Through a few rounds of trial-and-error, the Caravelle's team settled on a bottle design and perfected their water filtration system.

"We received certification from the local authorities that the water is safe for consumption," Mr. Robinson said. "We had a few rounds of tests and the system is cleared and healthy to provide drinking water. We have all the necessary documentation and we will re-test regularly."

The hotel currently has 2,000 glass bottles in stock, and expects to save 200,000 plastic bottles, equal to seven tons of plastic, per year moving forward.

See also: Hotel Waste, Single-Use Plastic and Climate Change - Interview with WWF.

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