Reusable Bottle For Meghauli Serai Resort: Impact On Environment

Answer :

Sustainable Development Project 

(Reusable Water Bottle)

Introduction:

The purpose of this report is to analyse how the use of reusable water bottles creates positive impacts on the environment, society and the economy. Meghauliserai resort, Chitwan Nepal, has taken an initiative of using locally manufactured reusable water bottles made up of bamboo. With this green plan, the particular hotel wants to uphold environment and economic sustainability. A detailed discussion has been made on how this sustainable development plan will make an impact on the local economy and environment. 

The local people will use bamboo to produce these reusable bottles for the Meghauliserai resort. Bottles will be handmade. Meghauliserai resort will place these bottles in every room so the tourists can use these bottles to drink water. The hotel also has planned to distribute these bottles to their guests and customers to increase the awareness of the product. As per the number of guests, Meghauliserai resort will purchase the bottles from local people. Guests will also be informed to not to dispose the bottles after their primary use. 

                (Source: Mustafa et al., 2013)

DiscussionImpact of reusable water bottles on the environment:

Using plastic water bottles affects the environment to a large extent. Over the past few years, the natural resources are being depleted at a shocking rate, due to which scientists have focused on shifting towards the use of the renewable energy (Cooper, Kendig& Belcher, 2011). The initiative taken by Meghauliserai resort to using locally made reusable water bottles will help them maintain environmental sustainability. Unlike the plastic water bottles, the disposal of reusable water bottles made up of bamboo in the land will not contaminate the soil. 

Energy consumption is a major concern for the plastic bottles manufacturers. If the production of plastic water bottles is reduced to a minimumlevel, then millions of barrels of oil could be saved and allocated elsewhere. Besides the production, aeroplanes, trucks and boats, which are used to travel water, consume a huge amount of fossil fuels. Consequently, it causes air contamination as well as global warming (Saylor, Prokopy&Amberg, 2011). 

Another environmental issue that can be resolved with the use of reusable water bottles is that the water itself. In most of the cases, the water, which is used for bottled water, sometimes routed from its natural source. Consequently, it disrupts the entire ecosystem. By encouraging local people of Chitwan Nepal to produce reusable water bottles with bamboo, Meghauliserai resort would be able to reduce the contamination of soil, leading to benefit the local farmers. Moreover, the use of fossil fuel will be reduced radically by shifting from plastic water bottles to locally made reusable water bottles. Producing reusable water bottle with bamboo would reduce the cost of PET. According to the PET association of Nepal, each year, 20,000 tons of PET is used for bottles. It is evident that Nepal is also a plastic waste issue (Hanjra& Qureshi, 2010). Therefore, it can be assessed that the use of reusable bottles would make a huge contribution to the environmental sustainability program. 

Impact of reusable water bottles on the society:

The use of locally made reusable water bottles can help people in the society living a healthy and standard life. As mentioned earlier, the disposal of plastic bottles in the land contaminates the soil, which in turn affects the local farming. With the use of reusable water bottles, Meghauliserai resort can contribute to the sustainability of the environment largely. People residing near the landfill tend to have health issues frequently (Mustafa et al., 2013). The use of reusable water bottles will help people in the society to lead a healthy life. The manufacturers of the bottles are poor people residing in Chitwan Nepal. The use of reusable water bottles by the guest of the hotel will help the local people to earn money for their living. The social economic development will be a major outcome of the particular green plan. Using reusable water bottles will also help in reducing soil contamination, as the guests will not dispose the bottle in land. Consequently, the local farmers will be benefitted with this green plan. 

The initiative of using locally made reusable plastic bottles is also a part of the corporate social responsibility of Meghauliserai resort. The hotel has decided to contribute 50% of total profit earned from the green plan into various water projects, such as clean water projects, and rainwater harvesting projects. The rest of the profit amount will be donated to the Nepal Orphans Home (NOH) for helping at least 50 children to get a proper education. Meghauliserai resort has decided to carry out this program twice a year. Besides this, the hotel has also come up with an idea of helping those farmers who encountered economic challenges due to drought. It has been planned to help 100 farmers in a year. When carrying out such large CSR program, the hotel needs to consider all ethical aspects, such as gender discrimination, labour equality, child labour, drought, poverty, health and education (Sulyman, Haponiuk&Formela, 2016). Regardless of sexual orientation, Meghauliserai resort will help children and farmers. 

Achieving green certification through such initiative is also a key intention of the hotel. Green certification can facilitate the hotel in many ways. For example, with the green certification, Meghauliserai resort could take benefits of various tax incentives for their eco-citizenship. A number of environmental measures quickly pay for Meghauliserai resort in saving costs. Environmental Management System (EMS) recognizes that Meghauliserai resort is focused on integrating the values and operations of the business to meet expectations of external and internal partners. 

Impact of reusable water bottles on the economy:

Social economy development is one of the key objectives of Meghauliserai resort. As mentioned earlier, the reusable water bottles will be locally sourced. Consequently, it can be assessed that the people of Chitwan Nepal could get adequate opportunities to increase their economic status being involved in the process of manufacturing reusable water bottles. The green plan of Meghauliserai resort will produce new jobs for the local tharucummunity. Besides producing job opportunities for the local people, the particular green plan of the hotel will have other economic benefits. 

The cost of manufacturing plastic bottled water is much higher than that of reusable water bottles made of bamboo. There is a high amount of fuel cost involved in transporting the plastic water bottles (Saylor, Prokopy&Amberg, 2011). By shifting towards the reusable water bottles, the hotel could save such high transport cost. In addition, for the manufacturing of plastic bottles, high energy is consumed, which also requires sound financial investment. Much plastic contamination ends up in the river and ocean. Frequent disposal of plastic bottles also damages the drainage system. The government needs to spend sound costs to overcome these challenges. Using reusable water bottles can facilitate the government to reduce their investment in various water projects.

Polyethylene terephthalate, abbreviated as PET, is needed for making plastic bottles. PET is a safe, strong, non-toxic, flexible material. PET is 100% recyclable. As per the data published by the PET association of Nepal, 400 thousand of PET water bottles are thrown away in Katmandu each day (Cooper, Kendig& Belcher, 2011). Therefore, the recycling costs for these plastic bottles are mounting. The green plan of Meghauliserai resort will focus on reducing the use of PET plastic for water bottles. A huge amount of financial resource is required to manage these wastes. With the use of reusable water bottles manufactured by local people of Chitwan Nepal, Meghauliserai resort can take the initiative to reduce high costs involved in various waste management programs. 

Tap water is more cost-efficient than bottled water. Using reusable water bottle can decrease the carbon footprint radically. Consequently, it would be helpful for the Nepal government, as they do not have to invest financial resources into various environmental projects to reduce carbon footprint. The cost of bottled water is 1900 times more than tap water (Saylor, Prokopy&Amberg, 2011). Most of the invested amount is used in packaging, shipping, bottling, marketing and other expenses. It can be assessed that with the initiative of using locally sourced reusable water bottles, Meghauliserai resort could contribute to the economic development of the society. Over the past few years, the rate of unemployment in Nepal has not improved radically. With the particular green plan, people of Meghauliserai resort can make a small contribution to the national economic development plan. 

Conclusion:

In conclusion, it can be assessed that the green plan of Meghauliserai resort to using locally sourced reusable water bottle made of bamboo has a number of economic, social and environmental benefits.  Shifting from plastic water bottles to reusable water bottles can facilitate the hotel to reduce air and soil contamination. This green plan also has the objective of developing social economy by producing new job opportunities for the local inhabitants. The accumulated profit from the particular green plan will be used in various charitable programs.