Low season on the island means fewer guests, cooler weather, and plenty of time for calm, peaceful reflection. We’re using our time to think of ways to be more environmentally conscious of our impact, and to make improvements and repairs to the resort. We want to give back to the island of Koh Phangan that we love so much.
Thailand is a rapidly developing nation, and the sanitation services are struggling to keep up. We feel that it’s our responsibility as hosts on this island paradise to contribute to municipal cleanup efforts. By lessening the amount of waste that we contribute, and reducing plastics that are discarded, we can do our part to have a more positive impact on the environment.
That’s why we’re proud to announce a partnership with Trash Hero.
The Trash Hero mission is to create sustainable, community-based projects that remove existing waste, and reduce future waste by inspiring long-term behavior change. Their organization is environmentally conscious at their core.
Our partnership with Trash Hero involves being a designated Water Bottle Station on Koh Phangan. When you bring your Trash Hero water bottle to our resort, we’ll fill it up for you free of charge. We also sell these bottles at our resort yoga shop! By offering this program, we can reduce the amount of plastic bottles finding their way into landfills and the Gulf of Thailand.
In addition to reducing the actual waste that we produce, we wanted to go a step further. With the generous help of Trash Hero, Remote Year, an environmentally conscious group of digital nomads, and COREsea – Marine Research and Conservation, we hosted a beach cleanup to remove debris that has washed in with the tides.
A total of seventeen people dispersed along Hin Kong beach to collect plastic and glass bottles, cigarette butts, a motorbike tire, and fish plastic bags out of the water. We filled a dozen bags full of trash and we feel pretty good about that!
Sunsets will be a little more magical now with a clean surrounding.
Ananda rewarded those dedicated volunteers with watermelon and clean drinking water after the beach cleanup. This was a great space for Trash Hero representatives and the Remote Year folks to share travel stories and learn more about Koh Phangan.
We send a heartfelt Thank You out to all the volunteers for their effort. Our beachfront looks clean and pristine!
Additional efforts that we’re taking towards being environmentally conscious and reducing our environmental impact include:
- Using more environmentally friendly take away containers at the restaurant.
- Pool maintenance to allow for less water usage.
- Sourcing the best local ingredients free of pesticides.
- An electronic, cloud-based back office to reduce paper use.
- Recycling plastic trash.
- Reminder signs in all the rooms to turn off A/C when not in use.
To find out more about Trash Hero and their positive efforts, visit their website: https://trashhero.org.