It is a commonly known fact that plastic waste is one of the greatest problems we face worldwide, including the Maldives. As part of its commitment to environmental sustainability and waste reduction, Faarufushi Maldives have started operating its own potable drinking water plant to eliminate single use plastic water bottles on the island.
The potable drinking water is bottled on the island using specially designed water filtration system that produces fresh water made from desalinated ocean water. The resort’s bottling plant can produce up to 400 liters of still and sparkling water, which is then served in customized re-usable glass bottles for their guests.
“With the move to producing our own drinking water, we expect to save almost 72,000 plastic bottles each year and provide a positive environmental, social and economic impact and importantly, offset carbon emissions from resort activities,” said General Manager, Jean-Marc Michel. “Generating our own water saves on importing tons of bottled water each year. It greatly reduces the number of plastic and glass bottles we need to dispose of, in a country that is still working on refining its recycling capabilities but committed to show major improvements in the near future. We are happily helping to improve the carbon foot print in our destination.”
Faarufushi has opened only less than a year ago and the resort strive to continuously promote environmental sustainability since the very beginning. In addition to their move to glass water bottles, they have also been using paper straws since the opening. Beach and lagoon clean up activities are held regularly among the team and educational marine biology presentations are conducted for the local schools in the nearby islands to create awareness and community engagement in the cause. Furthermore, they inform that are also proud to share that their support to local communities as most of the purchases of fish and produce are from the local fishermen and farmers.
The in-house filtered, purified premium bottled water has already proved extremely popular with hotel guests well aware of the urgent need to reduce plastic waste and our carbon footprint.
