Waste Management

We recognise that the best way to deal with waste is to prevent it arising in the first place. However, some waste we can’t prevent, so we have introduced a range of schemes to ensure we re-use, recover or recycle as much as we can.

In 2023, as a business, we generated 702 tonnes of waste but just 0.41% of it went to landfill – a result which could not have been achieved without finding new ways of doing things.

Nappies

As an illustration of such innovation, last year Bluestone became the only resort in the world to use the recycled nappies of its youngest guests as a walkway surface.

Cellulose fibres were recovered from around 60,000 used disposable nappies and added to the asphalt laid on the paths to our 80 new platinum lodges. This extends the life of the asphalt, reduces carbon emissions and diverts waste from landfill, where a single disposable nappy can take up to 500 years to degrade. Bluestone generates 72 tonnes of used nappies a year.

All are recycled. Some find their way back to the resort in the form of notice boards and insulation.

Food Waste

All Bluestone food waste is taken to an Anerobic Digestion (AD) facility just up the road in Cardigan. There, it goes into tanks where billions of bacteria break it down to release the energy within as methane gas. The gas is then used to turn generators which feed electricity into the National Grid.

In 2023, our food waste generated 55,105 kwh of green electricity – enough to power 20.4 average households for a year - while the pasteurised effluent was distributed to local farmers who injected it into the soil as an organic grade fertiliser.

Sofa-tunate

Sofas, if no longer needed, are diverted from landfill through community partnerships which can upcycle or re-use them.

One of these partners is Norman Industries, a local Community Interest Company that provides support to help people to gain new skills, improve confidence and become more independent, whether it be within their own home or within the community. Any sofas deemed beyond repair are dismantled so the separate materials can be re-used. The leather is used to re-upholster other furniture, the wood is used to make shelves, and the stuffing to fill cushions.

For about the same price as landfill, we now support two non-profits and five meaningful jobs (two paid), and have increased our recycling rate into the bargain.

Cooking Oil

In 2023, Bluestone generated 19.4 tonnes of used cooking oil, which was processed into 16,540 litres of biodiesel – enough fuel for the average car to drive 156,402 miles, or just over six times round the world.

As it’s made from a waste product, this biodiesel delivers greenhouse gas savings of up to 88% compared to fossil diesel, so while a car driving that distance on fossil diesel would emit 42.7 tonnes of CO²e, a car doing the same trip on Bluestone biodiesel would emit just five.

 

Such innovations have not gone unnoticed. Bluestone is a ‘best practice’ case study for the Welsh Government following the recent introduction of new recycling legislation. We are also a case study for the Circular Economy Innovation Community Project in Wales.

  

Free Range Future
We are passionate about our future
Sustainable Development
To secure a sustainable and fair future
Net Zero
Reducing our carbon footprint

 

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