Landlords: Summer Rental Properties – 4 Tips To Be More Eco

Tourism along the Costa del Sol has been at an all-time high the last couple of years but that also brings a higher volume of people, consumption and therefore higher volumes of waste.

You can make small changes which contribute to a bigger solution.

As a landlord of a summer rental property (or any time of year for that matter), you are likely to have guests from a variety of countries. Some will be naturally more eco-conscious than others. Also, depending on where you are located, will depend on how easily people can access environmentally helpful facilities such as all types of recycling bins.

Whether you have highly eco-aware guests or whether you have people who generate untold amounts of waste and don’t dispose of things correctly, we have put this list of tips together to help you:

1. Cleaning products 
If you provide cleaning products within your property, these can easily be eco-friendly. We recommend Ecover – a tried and tested eco brand which is also easy to find in the locality such as in Carrefour or various health stores on the Costa. It works as well as normal cleaning products and uses renewable plant-based and mineral ingredients and it’s not tested on animals. Plus, many of the bottles are made from recycled plastic and those that aren’t can still be recycled in the yellow bins or reused when finished.

2. Water
Since our recent visit to the Acosol water board, we can safely confirm that the tap water in the whole of the area of the Costa del Sol is perfectly drinkable. We would highly recommend you letting your guests know this so that they know they don’t have to buy large plastic bottles of water. This would make a big impact on the plastic that is thrown away by holiday-makers who don’t know for sure that the tap water is safe. Some people may not be too keen on the taste of the tap water, so in this case we recommend either supplying a jug-style water filter, or you could have a filter installed at the tap for constant filtered water and improved taste, there are some very inexpensive options on the market. We also now have the Manilva water dispenser where your guests can refill their large water bottles very cheaply. This can be found on the roundabout just to the east of the post office in Sabinillas. This would drastically cut down on plastic waste, so do let your guests know.

3. Recycling
If you regularly rent out your property to holidaymakers then chances are you already have a folder of information about the local area, attractions, eateries and transport etc. It would be very easy to add another page to your file which tells your guests the location of each type of recycling bins including paper, plastic, tins, cans, tetrapaks (briks) and glass. You might be lucky and have recycling bins on your urbanization, or you may have to drive a couple of minutes away to use them, but either way, encouraging your guests to recycle more will reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. Did you know that it is cheaper for the council to process recycling waste than general household waste? Read more here.

4. Shopping
It is also worth pointing out that many products in local supermarket Mercadona, now have a logo on them to indicate what packaging can be recycled into the yellow bins, and what can’t. You could draw your guests’ attention to this in your info pack, to help them make informed decisions when it comes to shopping and minimising their waste. Other examples include the best stores to buy packaging-free and the best stores for organic or eco products. Aldi, for example, sells 100% recycled toilet roll and the ‘zero’ eggs which are fully free range and come in recycled card boxes instead of plastic. You could also point them in the direction of our reusable fruit & veg bagssold and delivered locally 🙂 We can help with further information so please feel free to ask.

We will soon be sharing a downloadable PDF that you can print out and put in your apartments for holiday-makers and guests as well as your own use! Do get in touch if you would like any more help in spreading the word about how to better manage waste both in holiday season and at other times. SHARESHARE ON FACEBOOK