As an team member here, I can tell you that Busch Gardens takes recycling seriously.
I imagine that as a guest, you probably don’t think about "where it all goes" once you put your garbage or recycling in our receptacles, but it’s quite a process for our employees to take it from there!
The garbage and recycle bins are visible everywhere in the guest areas of the park, but there is quite an effort behind the scenes keep the park clean, but to recycle as well.
We’re doing our part in every employee cafeteria, break room, and office where we have collection bins for garbage and recycling too.
We collect white paper, cardboard, plastic and glass bottles, and aluminum cans for recycling.
All these materials are sorted at our collection sites on property and sent out from there.
Busch Gardens has a serious commitment to the environment and we’re always looking for ways to go “greener”. Here are some examples:
- We have replaced all incandescent light bulbs in the park with compact fluorescent ones and our gift shops will soon be eliminating plastic shopping bags. We believe this will keep millions of bags from ending up in landfills each year.
- Instead of plastic bags we will be using 100% recycled paper bags or our guests can purchase attractive, reusable bags in the shops. I like them better than the plain ones offered at the grocery store so I’ve already bought three of them and will take them with me when I do my weekly shopping.
As employees, our goal is to “pass no trash” in order for our park to be one of the most beautiful places you’ll ever visit.! Even the smallest efforts at home and work can help reduce our carbon footprint.
Here are a few things we can all do:
- Choose reusable products. For example: washable utensils, tableware, cloth napkins and dishtowels instead of disposables.
- Buy products made from recycled materials
- Keep scrap paper handy and use the back side of old documents for low priority printing like maps and lists.
- Change your printer settings to make double-sided pages.
We give our guests every possibe chance to recycle!
Here’s my personal favorite "go green" tip: When running the water in my shower while I wait for it to warm up, I use old gallon water jugs and fill them up until the water is hot. Then on plant watering day, I use the water I’ve collected. Not a drop gets wasted.
What is your favorite “go green” tip that you practice at home? Leave it in the comments below!
