Royal Resorts protecting the environment

In 2017, Royal Resorts continued its work to protect the environment. Here is the latest news about some of the projects that form part of the going green campaign at our Cancun and Riviera Maya resorts.

Bumper year for Turtles in 2017
The summer of 2017 was a record-breaking sea turtle season at Royal Resorts and throughout the Mexican Caribbean, 1,063 nests were protected in the turtle nurseries at The Royal Sands, The Royal Caribbean and The Royal Islander. By the end of November the security guards had released 111,226 baby turtles.

A further 20,000 baby turtles from 228 nests were released at Grand Residences by Royal Resorts to the south of Puerto Morelos and there were five nests at The Royal Haciendas too where turtles rarely come ashore.

Since 1998, Royal Resorts has protected 7,995 turtle nests and released 741,042 hatchlings. We look forward to watching over many thousands more turtles this year too.

Saying no to straws
Royal Resorts has joined the global no straws campaign to protect our beaches and oceans. Straws are a major component in the plastic waste being dumped in our oceans and are harmful to marine life. We are no longer serving drinks in our restaurants and bars with plastic drinking straws and we ask all our members and guests to support this initiative. Join us and go even further, ask for your drinks without straws wherever you may be in Cancun and the Riviera Maya, and back home.

In more restaurant news, the resort pool and beach bars have switched from polystyrene glasses and take-out containers to reusable melamine plates and biodegradable glasses and bags. The next stage is to eliminate all plastic cutlery. Cloth napkins have replaced paper napkins in all the restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner, thus saving paper and reducing the amount of trash generated.

At the resort stores all shoppers are asked if they need a plastic bag for their purchases and cloth bags are on sale as an environmentally friendly alternative.

Recycling
Trash is separated at Royal Resorts and all plastic, aluminum and paper waste suitable for recycling is sold, with the proceeds going to the Royal Resorts Foundation’s charitable causes. In 2017, an estimated 311 tons of waste were recycled representing US$13,600.

Used cooking oil from the restaurants is also recycled and sold to a company that uses it to generate biofuel.

Solar panels at The Royal Sands
The solar panels on the roof at The Royal Sands in Cancun heat 50 percent of the water used in the villas. Savings after the project investment now stand at US$71,474.00.

From high efficiency boilers and air-conditioning centrifuges that are heat exchangers used to preheat water in the machine house to LCD flat screen TVs in the rooms and energy saving light bulbs, energy-efficient technology is used at the resorts to reduce electricity consumption.

Water saving measures include installing efficiency devices in bathrooms and campaigns with guests to reuse towels and bed linens instead of requesting a daily change.

Using eco-friendly products
The resort housekeeping and maintenance departments use eco friendly cleaning products, soaps, polishes and varnishes wherever possible. Ozone technology keeps the water clean in the swimming pools and the use of chlorine has been cut by 40 percent.

Beach cleaning and reforestation
In other green news, Royal Resorts employees took part in beach cleaning campaigns during the year in Cancun, Puerto Morelos and the Riviera Maya; a clean up of the shores of the Nichupte Lagoon in Cancun and a City Hall initiative to eradicate casuarina pines in the Hotel Zone and plant mangrove seedlings in their place.