Taking Back Our Water
Cayuga is sustainability in action so this year we initiated an effort to get rid of bottled water. Why?
Because we have delicious potable water that we can drink at our properties. In general, Costa Rica is blessed with abundant fresh water and a large portion of this water is potable. Cayuga properties all have excellent water. Whether from springs, wells, or municipal sources, the waters on our properties are completely potable and we make sure to monitor this quality on a regular basis.
So, yes, we’re lucky, we don’t need to contribute to the unsustainable and environmentally unfriendly practice of drinking bottled water.
Join us, and while staying at our properties refill your water bottles. If you didn’t bring a bottle you can purchase a stainless steel one (food grade and BPA free) at the hotel.
Why are we saying goodbye to bottled water?
Bottled Water is…
wasting our water
It requires 3 times as much water to make the bottle as it does to fill it!
warming our planet
Worldwide, 17 million barrels of oil are used in the yearly production of water bottles. That's enough to fuel 1 million cars for a year!
And then think of the millions of barrels required to fuel the planes, trains, boats and trucks needed to transport the bottles all over the world!
Economic nonsense
Ounce per ounce it is more expensive to buy bottled water than to fill your car with gasoline! Sounds crazy but it’s true.
trashing our land
4 out of every 5 bottles ends up in the trash! That is 3 billion tons of plastic filling up landfills all over the world for hundreds of years. In Costa Rica these bottles end up in our rivers and oceans.
Rio Virilla, one of the principal and largest rivers in the country
Want to see the Story?
Want to read more?
- Mother Nature Network: Five Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water
- Bottled Water Blues
- Fast Company: Message in a Bottle
What else are we doing to take back our water?
Cleaning up the water
We are developing community projects to treat wastewater in the communities surrounding our hotels and in this way helping to address one of Costa Rica’s most serious environmental problems. 96% of all wastewater in Costa Rica goes untreated and is dumped into our rivers. 20% of the cost of the bottle you can purchase at the hotel goes towards this community wastewater treatment project Dump No More.
If you brought your own water bottle we still encourage you to be part of “Dump No More” by joining your hotel’s BYOB club. Ask the Front Desk at the hotel for details.
Cayuga is sustainability in action and with Taking Back our Waters we will be part of the efforts to minimize the trash of plastic bottles that clog our rivers. We will continue to encourage that our municipal governments provide clean potable water for it’s people, water that we will consume. We will protect our water sources and we will help clean wastewater so that it re-enter the great water cycle healthy and capable of being re-used by others.
What can you do to help back home?
- If you can -- and most of the United States is also blessed with potable water -- Take Back Your Water, make tap water your choice.
- If your tap water has a funny taste buy a filter. The market is full of options for water filters. Do a little research and buy one that suits your needs. It will cost you a fraction of the cost of bottled water and you won’t be trashing the land, wasting water, or contributing to global warming.
- Get involved. What is your town or city doing to insure that your tap water is always potable, available, and of good quality? Help any effort that is working towards this.
- And, if you can, give to help those that do not have access to clean water, it’s over a billion people the world over.