Lady Elliot Island to be water bottle free

Lady Elliot is the first island on the Great Barrier Reef to eliminate selling bottled water at the Resort in what is another step forward in reducing their environmental footprint.

Reusable bottles are available for purchase on the island (from $3.95) and ca be filled from drinking fountains located around the resort or from taps in their rooms. The water produced on the island is pure desalinated seawater with no additives. Sonya Mroz, Sales and Marketing Executive of Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort said that every little bit helps in reducing the massive amounts of needless waste that results from buying bottled water.

In 2009-10, approximately 373 million water bottles ended up as waste in Australia alone. If we can encourage our guests to live by the mantra of refill not landfill and engage with them to go water bottle free, hopefully this will spread to other communities around Australia and the World.

The extracting, packaging and transporting of a litre of bottled water can emit hundreds of times more greenhouse gases than a litre of tap water, so not only are we reducing the amount of bottles but also helping to save the environment. We all need to take a bold stand said Ms Mroz.

Other eco initiatives implemented on the island include doubling the amount of solar power which has increased the production of renewable energy to 170kW per day. This has effectively reduced diesel and greenhouse gas emissions by over 70% at the Eco Resort.

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publication: Media Release

date: 12/11/2012

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