As part of its environmental sustainability program, Park Hyatt Hyderabad partnered with WaterHealth India to set up a water purification cum glass bottling unit at its hotel premises. The state-of-the-art unit will provide purified WHO i.e. IS 10500 standard quality water in recyclable glass bottles to the hotel guests. This initiative, a fully automatic and IoT [Internet of Things] enabled glass bottling cum purification unit providing water in ‘super flint’ glass bottles, is the first of its kind in India and is expected to reduce single-use plastic waste at Park Hyatt Hyderabad.
Over 50 lakh tonnes of plastic waste are generated every year in India which are mostly disposed in landfills or water bodies. One of the biggest contributors to this waste is the use of PET bottles. “WaterHealth International is addressing this problem in two important ways. We are eliminating the need for single use plastics through our innovative safe drinking water services but equally importantly we are also enabling reverse logistics for plastic waste in the thousands of communities we work in”, said Mr. Sanjay Bhatnagar, CEO, WaterHealth International, USA.
The automated bottling plant uses IoT based technology to monitor [on a real-time basis] several key parameters i.e. cleanliness of water, pH and TDS [Total Dissolved Solids] of water, batch number, date of filling, etc. This technology also helps to predict plant maintenance frequency, thereby reducing the possibility of plant ‘down-time’.
Other than monitoring the water chemistry parameters at the plant, the QR code on the glass bottles (when scanned through a mobile phone) helps the consumers/users check the pH and TDS values of the purified water including the social, health, economic and environmental impact (by consuming a bottle of water).
On the occasion of the launch, Mr. Vikas Shah, the Chief Operating Officer, WaterHealth International, said, We are proud to be working with the Park Hyatt, who has taken a market leading position on environmentally sustainable solutions while delivering the highest quality water to their customers. This partnership is a great example of WHI’s “water as a service” model that has revolutionized the drinking water markets in developing economies. Though 70% of the planet is made of water, but only a small fraction of it is extractable for human consumption. By 2040 India will be one of the water stressed countries looking at the way we are extracting water right now and the consequences are far grave. Unfortunately the distribution of water is not equitable, for example USA which has 4% of the global population has 16% water reserves and India with 17% of global population has 4% water reserves and that is depleting fast as there is so much demand. In India 3 sectors consume water the most, agriculture, industry and domestic. WaterHealth intends to ensure plastic free options in the 5 segments of Corporate, Hospitality, Restaurants, Institutions and SMEs. We work with the municipalities for reaching out to consumers and already have plants and running for a longtime in Nizamabad, Adilabad, Karimnagar etc. As of now our priority sector is Hospitality industry, because they are keen to environmental friendly and are working towards adopting green measures.
Speaking at the inauguration of the bottling unit, Mr. Thomas Abraham, Area Vice President – South India and General Manager, Park Hyatt Hyderabad said, Not only does the initiative contribute to the environment by reducing carbon and fuel emissions and reducing plastic waste, but also to human health, as it helps prevent millions of micro-plastics from leeching into the body. We believe this initiative will enable us to truly fulfill Hyatt’s purpose, ‘we care for people so that they can be their best. We care for people so that they can be the best, that’s our commitment as we go forward into India and the world. It also reflects on our commitment towards the community and how we foster environment and sustainability as we go forward. Would like to share some facts for you, around the world one million plastic bottles are purchased every minute and that’s a big concern, as nobody what happens to all those plastic bottles after the water in it is consumed. In India people are resorting to landfills with these plastic bottles, with no clear thought on what to do with this plastic. Our contribution is 2.5 lakh plastic bottles a year, so we took a commitment to reduce it by 2.5 lakhs by switching over to glass bottles. We have tied up with WaterHealth for this journey and as part want to take it to our other hotels with in India very shortly.
This project will have a considerable impact on the environment in a single year as it will,
- eliminate the production of about 2.5 lakh single-use plastic bottles;
- save over 3.5 lakh litres of water;
- save under 200 MW of energy and
- restrict over 20 tons of carbon emissions.
Finally, it will have a significant health impact by preventing the leaching of about 5 million harmful microplastic particles from plastic bottles into drinking water.