It’s a small, neat friendly place at Tamborim in Cavellosim,popular for its pollution-free and environment friendly initiatives. Dona SaMaria is a delightful little retreat away from the mechanical and stressfullife of the city.
“From inception we have been following systems to curbpollution and recycle our garbage. We do not allow a single piece of waste toleave our compound” boasts the owner Serafino Cota, who has been running theplace since 1996.
At a time when the state’s Rs 1,700 crore tourism industryis struggling with the disposal of garbage, here is a goenkar who wants topreserve its beauty, in his own small way. “Garbage is not an issue at all” heannounces.
While most star hotels outsource their garbage disposal, thesmall and medium hotels and guesthouses, with little or no avenues for garbagedisposal are caught in the middle. Cota, on the other hand, plans his garbagemanagement brilliantly.
As the ex-chairman of the FOSAM (Forum of Small and MediumHotels and Guesthouses), Cota believes in leading by example. “I use my fishand chicken waste for composting. It comes handy for our fruit-trees and homegrown vegetables. All vegetable waste goes to our piggery. The lawn and gardensurvives on treated waste water from our kitchen. We trap the grease and addeffective micro-organisms (EM bacteria) and oxygen to make it odour-free”explains Cota who uses colour coding to segregate waste like paper, cardboards,plastic, glass, metal, broken ceramic, CFL bulbs and used batteries.
Dona Sa Maria does not use tube lights. Care is taken toensure natural light spreads into the inner quarters and only CFL bulbs or LEDis used. Cota has found a way to dispose used batteries. “I spread a layer of this powder underneath jogging trackor pavements. They work as cost-free pesticides for white ants” he says.Encouraging clay pottery wherever possible, Cota uses ceramics only for diningpurposes. The broken pieces of ceramic are crushed and mixed with concrete tomake tough flooring for the cattle shed. The paper, plastic or glass bottles,tetra packs, aluminum cans and even tyres are sent for recycling.
