TARRYTOWN, N.Y.—More than 75 staff, associates, and managers at Castle Hotel & Spa gathered on Earth Day, April 22, and filled more than 4,000 gallons of trash into 20-gallon bio bags that included disposable bottles, debris, trash, plastic bags and general yard waste from the historic 11-acre property in Tarrytown including the one-mile hiking path and bordering streets of Benedict Avenue and Martling Avenue.General Manager Gilbert Baeriswil welcomed the 75 employees of Castle Hotel & Spa for the “first annual Earth Day Clear and Clean” and handed out commemorative tee-shirts for the all-day event and shared sponsored coffee and...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—To celebrate Earth Month, the American Hotel & Lodging Assn. (AH&LA) is endorsing the Global Soap Project, a nonprofit organization launched in 2009, which has the dual mission of reducing waste while improving global health.More than 1,100 hotel properties send partially-used bars of soap to Global Soap for recycling. The group recycles up to 7,500 pounds of used soap each week to produce up to 30,000 new bars of soap. The group works with a global network of non-government organizations to distribute the reprocessed soap and provide hygiene education to refugees, disaster victims, homeless families, and people living...

CROSSVILLE, TENN.—Crossville Inc., a domestic porcelain tile manufacturer based in Crossville, Tenn., has diverted a total of 24 million pounds of porcelain from landfills since launching its Tile Take-Back program and TOTO USA recycling partnership. Both initiatives are based on Crossville’s proprietary process for recycling fired porcelain products, including post-consumer materials.Between both Tile Take-Back and the TOTO USA partnership, Crossville achieved the following in 2012: •    Recycled more than 5,550,354 pounds of fired tile produced at the company’s plants that would have previously gone to landfills; •    Received and processed more than 60,560 pounds of tile including scraps and post-consumer...

DENVER—According to Milo Cress, an 11-year-old middle school student and enthusiastic environmentalist, an estimated 500 million drinking straws—enough to fill 46,400 school buses annually—are discarded every day. Unfortunately, many don’t even make it to the landfills.That’s why Xanterra, operator of tourism entities worldwide, is launching a ‘Choose to be Straw Free’ program on Earth Day, April 22. This is the latest in a yearlong series of sustainability initiatives that have earned the company worldwide recognition.”The campaign will roll out initially at Zion Lodge in Zion National Park, Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va., Grand Canyon Railway in Williams, Ariz., Grand...

If you’re reading this you recognize that there is a portion of your customer base who values green initiatives and you are trying to reach those guests. Those guests may be groups who have made “green” a criterion for selecting locations for their meetings or annual conferences. Or they may be individuals who are extending their environmental values to all aspects of their life—even recreation and travel. But how do you showcase your green commitment? It’s not easy to see green. To showcase your green commitment, don’t overlook the value of prominent high-aesthetic recycling containers. Whether it’s fair or not,...

SEATTLE—Two Seattle based travel companies, Crooked Trails and Wildland Adventures, launched a global initiative called Travelers Against Plastic (TAP) to spread awareness about the worldwide impacts of disposable plastic water bottles, and to garner support from outbound tour operators to have their clients carry reusable water bottles and a SteriPEN or filtering system, the next time they travel abroad.The call to action is for everyone to visit www.travelersagainstplastic.org where travelers can sign the pledge to avoid purchasing bottled water while abroad. Tour operators can pledge to support the campaign by supplying their clients with information on how to travel...

WATERFORD, N.Y.—North America’s fourth largest producer of towel and tissue paper, Cascades Tissue Group, announced an extension of its Cascades Moka line with the launch of the first-ever, unbleached, 100 percent recycled, environmentally preferable facial tissue. This new beige-colored facial tissue unique to Cascades follows the award-winning, January 2012 launch of the Cascades Moka bathroom tissue, which created a new category of bathroom tissue that quickly sold through its initial inventory and is now a growing category for the company.Just like its bathroom tissue predecessor, the new Cascades Moka facial tissue is made of a pulp mix composed of...

SAN DIEGO—Kirei’s new recycled millwork panel collection illustrates the phrase “one man’s trash is another’s treasure.” The Pacific Coastal Collection redwood and blue pine millwork panels are built using falloff from flooring or casework manufacture and waste wood from beetle-killed pine trees from across the western United States. The result is a set of design materials that turn industrial waste components into new eco-friendly interior design looks.“The material no one wants is our gold—to us it’s where the real beauty lies,” says John Stein, Kirei owner.To make the Pacific Coastal Collection, discarded redwood falloff pieces are planed to shape...

CINCINNATI—Procter & Gamble, the company behind consumer brands including Gillette, Ariel, Tide and Pampers, announced that 45 of their facilities have now achieved zero manufacturing waste to landfill, which marks a major step toward the company’s long-term vision of sending zero manufacturing and consumer waste to landfills. Over the past five years, P&G’s work to find worth in waste has created more than $1 billion in value for the company.“We have a vision for the future, where plants are powered by renewable energy, products are made from recycled and renewable materials and resources are conserved, with no waste going...

LONDON—A growing body of evidence suggests tackling food waste could help resolve many of the sustainability challenges faced by the food industry. A number of studies are linking food losses and waste to food inflation, food security, resource inputs and climate change.The global food industry is currently experiencing its third bout of food inflation in five years because of poor agricultural harvests in the United States, Russia and South America. Analysts predict the average basket of food prices will rise by 15 percent by June 2013. The hike in food prices is raising concerns about food security and its...