Water & waste management

Scroll down for posts that have been tagged with “water and waste man­age­ment” as it relates to travel & tour­ism des­tin­a­tions and industry stakeholders.

Tags are inform­al. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog tries not to get bogged down with ter­min­o­logy and defin­i­tions. If you dis­agree with tags applied (or not applied) to a post, feel free to com­ment on it or any post you think has been incor­rectly or insuf­fi­ciently tagged. “GT” encour­ages good-faith debate and discussion.

Can the tide of ocean plastic be stopped? The No-Trash Triangle Initiative thinks so


Can the tide of ocean plastic be stopped? The No-Trash Triangle Initiative thinks so. Photo by Ezra Kaunang for NTTI

Per­haps 80% of the plastic in our oceans gets there via rivers. In Man­ado, Indone­sia the grass­roots No-Trash River pro­ject uses simple bar­ri­ers to catch plastic waste, pre­vent­ing it from reach­ing the Bunaken Mar­ine Park and spoil­ing its dive tour­ism hotspots.

Learn more from Anna Cler­ici, co-founder of the No-Trash Tri­angle Ini­ti­at­ive which is an EXO Found­a­tion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Award winner.

Read More Can the tide of ocean plastic be stopped? The No-Trash Triangle Initiative thinks so

How Anh Duong turns plastic waste into products, learnings, livelihoods in Vietnam


How Anh Duong turns plastic waste into products, learnings, livelihoods in Vietnam

In the heart of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, plastic waste is more than an envir­on­ment­al issue; it is a com­munity challenge. 

Anh Duong Cen­ter is facing up to the chal­lenge by turn­ing plastic waste into products, learn­ings, and livelihoods. 

Their innov­at­ive school-based mod­el has earned recog­ni­tion from the 2025 EXO Found­a­tion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Awards in the ‘People’ category.

Read More How Anh Duong turns plastic waste into products, learnings, livelihoods in Vietnam

As Bali runs dry, can tourism help replenish its water?


In Bali, water is essential to culture as well as life. As Bali runs dry, can tourism help replenish its water?

The travel & tour­ism industry can be expec­ted to hon­our the human right to water, par­tic­u­larly in com­munit­ies and des­tin­a­tions in which it operates. 

Industry stake­hold­ers need not see this as a bur­den, but rather as a com­pel­ling oppor­tun­ity to mean­ing­fully engage with loc­al people on secur­ing tra­di­tion­al water sup­plies, all the while devel­op­ing more sus­tain­able water and waste man­age­ment sys­tems of their own.

Nic­olaus Sulistyo sheds light on IDEP Found­a­tion’s Bali Water Pro­tec­tion (BWP) ini­ti­at­ive; an EXO Found­a­tion Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Award winner.

Read More As Bali runs dry, can tourism help replenish its water?

How a human rights approach can help hotels improve their water management

and October 18, 2022

Hotels and the human right to water. Image by mrjn Photography (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/YpZ2cj4s0oo

Accom­mod­a­tion ser­vice pro­viders are expec­ted to hon­our the human right to water of all those around them.  Hoteliers should view this respons­ib­il­ity not as a bur­den, but as an oppor­tun­ity to mean­ing­fully and con­tinu­ally engage with des­tin­a­tion stake­hold­ers while devel­op­ing more effi­cient and sus­tain­able water and waste man­age­ment sys­tems. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight by […]

Read More How a human rights approach can help hotels improve their water management

One tourism beach at a time: Local action can help turn the tide on marine plastic


One piece at a time, one beach at a time: Tourism can stem the tide and then turn the tide on marine plastic pollution. By Karuvadgraphy (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/sunrise-sunset-grass-morning-dusk-4807648/

Even the smal­lest steps taken by travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers to counter the glob­al threat of ocean plastic pol­lu­tion are import­ant, accord­ing to PhD can­did­ate Kriszt­ina Elefther­­i­ou-Hoc­­sak. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, she dis­cusses the loc­al actions taken by a non­profit organ­isa­tion in Cyprus. [Thanks to Tazim Jamal for invit­ing Ms Elefther­­i­ou-Hoc­­sak to write a […]

Read More One tourism beach at a time: Local action can help turn the tide on marine plastic

Save to sustain: Frugal innovation & traditional knowledge in circular tourism

July 13, 2021

Island. By Tomas Anunziata (CC0) via Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/photo/island-with-floating-boat-from-drone-3876404/ Vine. By gyromatical (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/vine-frame-border-leaves-wreath-6184947/ Family. By Clker-Free-Vector-Images (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/vectors/family-parents-kids-children-young-43873/

Angelo Sciacca was the first guest author to intro­duce the concept of the cir­cu­lar eco­nomy to this web­site when he argued for its poten­tial to make small island des­tin­a­tions more resi­li­ent and less depend­ent on travel & tour­ism. In this, his third “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Mr Sciacca adds frugal innov­a­tion and tra­di­tion­al know­ledge to his […]

Read More Save to sustain: Frugal innovation & traditional knowledge in circular tourism