To reduce reliance on single-use items at our properties and promote reuse, in 2020, we launched a smart reusable cup system at Taikoo Place in partnership with a start-up company.
This mobile-enabled system allows users to borrow a reusable cup at participating café partners and return the used cups to any of five locations across Taikoo Place. The returned cups are professionally washed and sanitised and restocked at the cafés daily. Over seven weeks, we avoided the disposal of more than 2000 disposable coffee cups.
Also this year, Swire Hotels implemented a wide range of initiatives to reduce their consumption of single-use plastics, including:
- Retrofitting over 500 rooms at EAST Hong Kong, EAST Beijing and EAST Miami hotels with a water filtration system to phase out plastic water bottles;
- Replacing plastic water bottles with glass bottles in rooms at The Middle House;
- Changing to wooden key cards and amenities made from bamboo at EAST Beijing;
- Offering single-use toiletries on request only at The Opposite House; and
- Installing a filtered water dispenser at the gym at The Upper House.
Apart from reducing and reusing, we also promote circularity by supporting the recovery of single-use plastics. In 2020, we continued to support the “Tap, Return, Earn” campaign. The campaign’s smart plastic beverage bottle deposit machines set up at The Loop at Taikoo Place and near the Town Square at Citygate Outlets have collected more than 792000 plastic bottles for recycling since September 2019.