This Coorg resort is charging guests for wasting food
Bengaluru: Food waste is definitely not a good taste. A luxury resort in Karnataka came up with an ingenious way to decrease the wastage of food by its guests. The Ibnii Spa Resort started charging its customers for wasting food.
The resort which is located in the hills of Coorg, Karnataka, has come down from 14 waste bins to just one since the initiative was implemented.
The composting unit of the resort used to be overworked with 14 huge garbage bins of leftover food daily. The resort decided to decrease the quantity of waste by informing guests that they could place their orders any number of times.
However, when the wastage of food did not stop, the resort came up with the unique idea of making the guests pay for the food they ordered but did not eat.
How much do the guests pay for wasting food?
The idea was simple. At the end of every meal, all the leftover food is weighed on a weighing machine in front of the guests. At the time of checkout, the guests are told how much food they wasted during their stay. They have to pay Rs 100 for every 10 gram of food wasted by them. The amount is to be dropped in a donation box which goes to a not-for-profit organisation that feeds children at an orphanage in Madikeri.
How have the guests reacted to the initiative?
The initiative which was started six months ago has made a huge impact on the conscience of the guests. “We have seen a drastic decrease in the quantity of food waste. From fourteen waste bins every day, we now only need one,” Shreya Krishnan, CSR adviser at The Ibnii, told Deccan Chronicle. The guests have appreciated the resort’s efforts to reduce food wastage.
How much food do we waste?
One-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year gets lost or wasted, according to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations.
Not only is the food wastage wrong to farmers who grow the crop and the chefs who cook the dishes but it is also unfair to those people who can’t afford two meals in a day and impacts the environment too.
