Ways to have an eco-friendly holiday
TAKE 4
Fix: Most importantly, get adequate sleep — minimum eight hours. To feel relaxed, use frozen cucumber slices as ice packs for the eyes. You can also ask your dermatologist to recommend a replenishing under-eye cream for you. Spiffy! That’s how Irrfan looked in his choice of attire for film promotions, recently. He was styled to perfection in a blazer with a shirt and trousers. The hat added to the look.
Hotel stays during a vacation can be a lavish affair even without wasting resources. How, you wonder? By not asking for fresh bedsheets and toiletries unnecessarily and making good use of door cards etc, say experts. Here are more tips for an eco-friendly holiday.
DON’Ts
Ask for fresh bedsheets and towels if not necessary. A lot of water gets wasted in washing them. Being conscious about what you request for will lead to a more ecofriendlier space and help reducing carbon-footprints that today stand as a cause of destruction of our planet.
Ask for more toiletries. Almost all of us at some point of time have taken that shampoo we liked so much and kept it in our bags. A lot of hotels prefer to refill the bottles with shampoos and save the cost of buying more plastic bottles. You can do your bit to save that extra plastic bottle and make that bit of difference, too.
Leave the power connection turned on. Leaving your room without turning off the lights or taking that key card out of the power socket wastes so much electricity; that, too, in a country with several power cuts. Take the responsibility and don’t waste that energy.
DOs
Make use of door cards. We often ignore them and the housekeeping staff ends up cleaning our room, replacing the unsoiled bedsheets and towels. To avoid unnecessary cleaning, put the ‘Do not disturb’ card at the knob. This way the housekeeping will not enter your room and save that precious water.
Make use of the water from the restaurant. The essence of not purchasing that bottled water one after the other lies in saving your own carbon footprint. Plastic is also absolutely non-perishable.
Use water carefully. Just like you would at home, don’t keep the tap on unnecessarily while using the bathroom, be it for brushing your teeth or taking a bath.
Use fruit card to offer fruits only on request instead of regular basis. This helps reduce food wastage.
Pick hotels with sustainability initiatives. This includes the installation of energy efficient lights, occupancy sensors, faucet aerators, low flow fixtures such as showerheads and rain water capture systems.