Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Port Douglas
The Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort is a popular 5-star beachfront resort located in Port Douglas, one of Australia’s most iconic towns. Offering luxury escapes to all, Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort wanted to provide top quality service while reducing their environmental impact.
With an all-day menu enjoyed by up to 900 guests a day, kitchen waste was a key issue they wanted to manage. Within the first month of using our commercial composters, they saw:
53.81%
Reduction in kitchen waste going to landfill
41%
Reduction in waste cost
Food waste at the resort
As a renowned resort destination, Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Port Douglas can generate up to 150kg of food waste per day.
Using a range of local and tropical ingredients in their commercial kitchen, food waste is generally in-edible food preparation such as orange and watermelon peels.
Why a commercial composter?
Belinda Tuckwell, Executive Chef at the Sheraton Hotels & Resorts shared that managing food waste on-site was important to the resort to reduce pressure on landfill.
Other functional factors such as the ability to be used without plumbing and water were considered and ease of use.
After much consideration, the culinary team determined that composting was the most effective way to manage food waste.
Compost for their expansive gardens
The resort has more than 147 hectors of land featuring an expansive tropical garden with banana and coconut plants as well as their own kitchen gardens, where many of their fresh kitchen ingredients such as herbs and chillies are sourced.
Using a mixture of compost from their commercial composter with fresh soil across the gardens sees their plants and greenery thrive.
“As a large resort, we have the ability to create a significant amount of organic food waste every day. Composting significantly reduces our contribution to landfill, so that we can operate in a more environmentally conscious way.”
- Belinda Tuckwell
Executive Chef at Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort Port Douglas
A leader in tourism sustainability
Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort, Port Douglas was presented first runner up as a leader in Sustainable Tourism Excellence at the prestigious Expedia Group TNQ Tourism Industry Excellence Awards announced on October 27 2023 at the Cairns Convention Centre.
Apart from using a commercial composter the facility also:
- made changes to its lighting, ovens, showers and taps to reduce energy and waste.
- harvests ocean water to fill swimming pools to significantly reduce use of fresh, potable water
- optimised its heat, cooling and ventilation system to save energy
- recycled 18,720L of cooking oil each year through a partner organisation
- utilised a commercial floor cleaner in the commercial kitchen which reduced the amount of water used for cleaning every evening from 1000L to approximately 50L
