Two years ago, Hilton New York made waves with the installation of fuel cell technology that generates clean power. Now, the hotel is continuing on its green journey with several new eco-centric initiatives:
- Organic waste decomposition system: To reduce the eight tons of wet garbage—the equivalent of approximately 5,000 meals—produced on average at the hotel each day, Hilton New York catering and operations team members turned to science. The hotel’s new organic waste decomposition system (distributed by New Jersey-based BioHitech America, LLC), located in the New York Marketplace restaurant banquet kitchen, enables employees to dispose of table and kitchen scraps into a unit the size of a chest freezer. Microorganisms and water inside the unit break down the food wastes into a disposable liquid that is ultimately returned back to the ecosystem via the existing drainage and sewer system. The digestion process, which has exceeded 100 pounds per hour, eliminates approximately 400 bags of garbage per day.
- Water purification system: The hotel has implemented an on-site water purification system created by Natura® Water. The Natura system connects to the existing water source, where the water flows through two different high-tech Natura filters and then sterilizes it through a prolonged exposure to UV light. Tap water is purified into chilled, high-quality still and sparkling water and served in reusable glass bottles, available in the hotel’s restaurants and room service. By year’s end, the hotel anticipates that the use of these reusable bottles will have eliminated approximately 12,000 disposable glass and plastic bottles from daily circulation in the hotel.
- Biodegradable guestroom access key cards: Guests are now using a new room key made from biodegradable PVC supplied by Guest Access Int’l®, part of its EnviroKeys™ line. The biodegradation process begins when the bioPVC™ film is introduced into a fertile environment, allowing the plastic card product to break down in as little as nine months. The hotel estimates that using the new biodegradable key cards will save 250 pounds of plastic from clogging landfills over the next five years.
