We Say No To Plastic Bottles

International Travellers’ Hostel is dedicated toward ethical business conduct and sustaining our environmental health, apart from setting fair working conditions for our staff.

Plastic is a massive environmental hazard. Besides destroying our habitat, it inflicts direct harm to all life on earth. At our hostel, therefore, we try to minimise use of all non-durable plastic. Among all, the biggest nuisance are plastic bottles. And that is something we can control to a great extent. And so we try to do.

Below text is from the poster displayed at our hostel to remind all of our guests to handle plastic bottles responsibly.

To keep things clear: We are NOT a fair trade certified business. But that does not ax our fair motive.

We Say No To Plastic Bottles

We do not have a way to recycle plastic bottles. Neither does the municipality of Varanasi. Hence, we have decided to ban plastic bottles from being left behind at our Hostel. We request you to, if you do bring plastic bottles here, please carry them out with you. If you leave them behind, we will be stuck with a waste we do not know how to handle. We primarily hope that you will use our Free Purified Drinking Water facility for your water needs and not buy bottled water in the first place (you will be saving roughly Rs.20 – Rs.50 every single day by doing so). If you do buy and happen to walk in here with a plastic bottle, please refill this bottle from our kitchen and reuse it – for as long as possible. This will ensure lesser waste production.

Besides, if you discard your plastic bottle without “crushing” it, it may end up back in the chain of supplies with refilled “dirty” water that will make people sick. Please only and always discard your plastic bottle responsibly and in appropriate places.

As responsible travellers this is the least we can do to help a country that is already struggling with massive garbage problems. Selling bottled water would mean profit for us. But we would rather live consciously.

Thank you for your cooperation.

“That plastic bottle in your hand will feel as dangerous as a molotov cocktail” – New York Times

We also encourage everyone to watch the film ‘Trashed’: an award-winning documentary feature film by Blenheim Films with Jeremy Iron. It will change everything about how you perceive your ‘modern day life’.

There really is ‘no place for trash’.