Talalla Retreat

A fully equipped, onsite waste management facility for a high end beachside resort

Talalla Retreat, a renowned resort on the south coast of Sri Lanka, engaged with me to create a solution for the food waste management of the resort. I travelled to Sri Lanka and visited the resort to do a full audit of the food and carbon waste streams onsite and prepare a plan and budget for developing a complete food and green waste management plant.

Working in collaboration with local staff, tradesmen and the Rahuna University, the project had a strong aspect of community engagement. Overall the project was a complete success as we established a facility and waste management plan which has allowed the resort to divert all food and carbon waste from landfill, engage staff and cliental in a wholesome environmental activity, and create an educational platform and talking point with visitors.

The Project

LOCATION - Sampaya House, Sri Lanka
DATE - 2017
CLIENT - Talalla Retreat
DESIGN - Andrew HDV
PROJECT MANAGER - Andrew HDV
COLLABORATION - Peter Howard (Biochar)
ASSOCIATIONS - Rahuna University
CONSTRUCTION - Resort staff and locals
TIMEFRAME - 6 weeks
BUDGET - Low

Impact

Environmental

  • Diverting food waste from landfill and converting it into a resource onsite

  • Carbon waste from the resort safely and environmentally upscaled to a valuable nutrient with our onsite biochar facility

  • Creating integrated food gardens matched to the needs of the resort, to supply abundant organic food, with an emphasis on traditional and medicinally based local plant and food production

  • Offset carbon footprint – potential for retreat to be net carbon neutral or even carbon negative

Economic

  • A significant focus for media exposure (national and international), word of mouth, promotion of eco-tourism

  • Eliminate the cost of fertilisers and compost for growing

  • Spin off income from bi-products (compost, worms, biochar)

Social

  • Guests, staff and local villagers and learning institutions are exposed to this unique process of transforming waste with fully working and educational, show and tell facility

  • Social community strengthened with a shared goal of transforming waste and growing healthy food

  • Gives the resort a leading edge amongst resorts, retreats and hotels

Educational

  • Guests, staff, local villagers, research institutes all learn from the newly formed facility

  • Inspires further creative input solicited from the ideas of people experiencing the system, leading to further optimise the functioning of the system on site

Site Visits

We'd love to show you through the site at Talalla Retreat in Sri Lanka. Udesh, a staff member from the Uni of Rahuna (Department of Agricultural, Soil Facility) is working in collaboration with Talalla Retreat and is our contact person on site. Feel free to contact him at any time to arrange a walk-though.

Udesh Dharmasiri Belpagoda Gamage

Phone: +94 710 653 388
Email: udeshdharmasiri@yahoo.com