Our Garden:

The environment is important for all of us. We had a very long and  big draught last year and most plants died. We have replaced most of the plants in our garden with all kinds of  succulents. These wonderful plants use almost no water.

We use rainwater for watering our garden.

Recycling:

Fortunately for us, our municipality is also involved with recycling. To make the process of recycling waste materials easier we as our guests to assist us by choosing the right bin for trash.

Recycled materials are: Glass, Cardboard and Paper, Can and Plastic (pet bottles).

Compost:

In our kitchens we placed small green bins for collecting vegetable and fruit peels, egg shell, etc.... We mix with waste material from the garden and ashes from our bonfires.

Carbon Footprint:

To offset our Carbon Footprint we have planted approx. 30 indigineous trees on the Garden Route. Albergo for Backpackers is Carbon Neutral Approved for 2009/2010 by "Planet Green Ocean Blue".

Water Saving:

We catch the (rinse)water from our laundry machine and re-use this for another purpose.

Water Heating:

All our water is heated with inline gas heating systems. Gas is a primary source of energy. Although this is certainly not the cleanest way of water heating it is definately cleaner then the old fashion electric geysers which are commonly used for water heating. We are currently speaking with an environmental consultant to find an even cleaner way for water heating.

Energy Saving:

Of course we have replaced most of our light bulbs with energy saving lights. Actually it is quite amazing to see how many lights we have in our backpackers and how much energy we save by replacing them.

Less Paper in our industry or a "paperless" industry:

We used to display flyers from the industry. What we have seen quite often is people collecting flyers, sitting down and reading them, getting up and leaving them behind at that same spot. We also found out that a lot of the flyers were outdated.

To fight this waste of paper we have removed almost all flyers from our reception area. We only display flyers from activities in Plettenberg Bay and surroundings. For all other activities and accommodation establishments asking us to display their flyers we just collect two flyers. These we put in a display file. In case the guest wants to keep the displayed information from the file, we suggest to make a picture of the flyer. This is an excellent way of keeping information available and no paper is wasted.

We can proudly say that we have not ever printed a single Albergo Flyer in the last 10 years. We only print business-cards and occasionaly a small poster (A4). Speaking of posters: We also only collect A4 or A3 posters from activities and accommodation establishments and display the posters in a display file.