Campaign logo and artwork © Christopher Cowell

Making the Right CH²Oice, in your home and when you travel ……………..

• Think before you drink.  Buy a fun stainless steel water bottle today and use it!
• Encourage your friends, family and colleagues to drop the plastic bottle and support the environment.
• At hotels, restaurants and bars, always ask for safe drinking water that is not from individual plastic bottles. People pay attention to customer requests.
• Install a water filter at home, if your tap water is not to your taste.
• Think of easy ways to save water in your home and office.
• Use aerators on taps, washing up in a bowl and not under a running tap, fixing leaks quickly, dual-flush systems on toilets, watering the garden at night, using grey water for the garden, planting drought-resistant plants and grass in your garden, plant indigneous trees suited to your soil and climate, only using washing machine and dishwasher with a full load. Don’t wash your car more than strictly necessary, wipe dust off instead. While you are waiting for the hot water to come through on your shower, collect the cold in a bucket and use it to water pot plants, water for pets or general washing etc.
• In hotels, do not ask for your towels to be changed each day and your sheets every two days.
• If you see ways that hotels and camps could reduce water usage and waste, let them know on the comment and feedback forms.
• Reduce your need for plastic: take your own baskets to the shops, say ‘no’ to straws in your drinks, buy washing powders in boxes not bottles, take your own containers when collecting a takeaway, use matches not disposable lighters, buy your pulses, seeds and grains from bulk dispensers not individual plastic bags, avoid purchasing frozen foods as they have excessive packaging, make your own fruit juices; don’t buy juice in plastic bottles.
• Re-cycle what you can. Ask at your local Council offices or Area Information Centre for a list of your convenient recycling depots.
• A Waste Directory list for Tanzania is available at www.honeyguide.org. Plastics can be recycled at the following places in Kenya: www.ecopost.co.ke, www.a-oneplastics.com. PET bottles (without the caps and labels) at  greenloopint@gmail.com . Marula Studios, Karen for flipflops, plastics, tin and glass. For Arusha, Tanzania: Shanga Shangaa, accept glass bottles. Plastics can be taken to Tena, in Mbauda. Water bottles can be taken to A to Z for mosquito nets.
• Always ask how they are re-cycling the products and for what as well as where they are going for processing. Some are not as local as you might like.

Making the Right CH²Oice, as a camp, hotel operator or a ground handler……………….

Provide safe, bulk, drinking water for all clients – in your hotels or camps, in your cars and in your business. This can be:

• The 10-15 or 20 litre bulk water bottles from the same water suppliers you use now but which are re-usable and exchanged for full ones in the shop.
• Filtered water using any of the certified methods for filtration that produce safe drinking water. Display your certificate and description of the filter process in your client information.
• Water jugs on the table at meals, filled from bulk dispensers
• The 10 or 15 litre refillable plastic bulk water containers, protected in a light weight, wooden frame in the back of your game drive vehicles.
• Stainless steel refillable water bottles in the cool boxes and fridges and seat pockets in your game drive vehicles, filled from bulk water supplies.
• If you provide cups in the vehicles for drinking water, make sure these are stainless steel or enamel and not plastic.
• Make sure your water bottles and cups are washed seperately from all other washing up, in safe water, and stored in a dust free environment.
• Encourage and reassure your clients about drinking your safe bulk water and promoting it in your company literature.
• Bring in all your employees to promote the campaign. Make sure they understand what you are doing, why it is so important and how they can help.
• Manage your water usage efficiently – reduce wastage – fix leaks. Review your procedures, monitor your consumption and implement helpful changes. Read the hints on water savings above. It saves you money!
• Reduce all waste as much as possible. Think BULK, Think LOCAL, Think BIO-DEGRADABLE, Think RE-CYCLE. It saves you money!
• Start a rubbish awareness campaign in the community areas that you work or support to include education at schools, regular rubbish clean-ups with the support of the Village Council.

Americans drink 21 US gallons of bottled water drunk each per year , only 22% of these bottles are recycled. The rest end up in landfills, as litter or in the ocean. In Africa, the percentage recycled is MUCH lower as there are few recyling opportunities.