It’s 5am as I open my eyes and start to wake up– floating on a white cloud of a comfortable futon atop a stylishly repurposed vintage denim rug. The room is a comfortable temperature and all is quiet except for the soft hum of a circulator fan. I would linger, but I don’t want to miss the sunrise in this mountain view room that I’ve heard is impressive.
I’m thrilled to be one of first hundred guests to stay here as, like Kamikatsu is a tiny town of 1,500 people, this is a tiny hotel made up of only four rooms. This Zero-Waste Hotel WHY opened mid-pandemic in May 2020 as a part of the new question-mark shaped garbage sorting and education facility.
Luckily I’m double-vaxxed and got a negative PCR test so I was able to join this fantastic project consulting for Heartland Japan travel co. to create sustainable-adventure tours for future international visitors to Kamikatsu.
Walking toward the bathroom, automatic lights turn on and I see the small sliver of handcrafted soap on the sink. At check-in, I cut the size of the soap myself with a cheese grater to be only as much as I needed for my stay and a newsprint wrapper was provided to take the rest home if I didn’t use it all.
The modern-Japanese toilet has all the high-tech bells and whistles, buttons for the bidet and a heated seat, but is water efficient. There’s a small notice above the toilet paper explaining that the rolls are not changed until finished.
It’s still dark, so I make coffee from the reusable pot of just enough grinds I have chosen at check-in which originates from a grower in Indonesia through a direct-trade agreement. The slow-drip through the reusable coffee filter generously fills the room with its rich aroma.
Sitting on a comfortable modern sofa, salvaged from a discarded showroom model, I can now see the mountain range of Kamikatsu through the floor-to-ceiling old odd-sized-windows-filled wall. This stunning sustainable upcycled design is a popular feature of the WHY facility as well as the Kamikatsu Rise&Win Craft Brewery at the base of the town. Both buildings were designed by architect Hiroshi Nakamura and his team at NAP.
As the sun comes closer, it first illuminates the night sky just enough to create deeper contrast of the trees silhouette on the ridge. I step out through the windows into the cool pre-dawn air onto a Sugi cedar terrace utilizing the stunning yet over-abundant local mono-crop that dominates mountain views, and gives locals allergies, but does not usually yield enough to merit harvesting as the current market price is only 1,000yen ($10) a tree.
The morning glow is deepening as I fill my lungs with clean air and stretch– taking in the sounds of the wind through the trees, chirping insects and birds. Post-stretching Kamikatsu Bancha fermented tea is the perfect refreshing drink made into a glass pot from my just-enough supply of dry leaves in a stylish glass reusable container.
Putting together my breakfast-to-go for my morning SUP adventure– using the canvas pack given at check-in. First, adding hot water to a thermos filled with a rich handmade tomato-herb soup base. Then filling the bagel with local greens, carrots, tomatoes, crispy sweet potato chips and a vegan mayo. All the ingredients carefully packaged in variety of beautiful old wooden boxes and modern reusable containers.
As I pack up my things I consider the history of the beautifully designed wood flooring, custom-made curtains and natural shape of the wooden desk. The curtains and denim rug created by local craftspeople from offcuts and wasted textiles, the stairs, beams and desk from locally sourced wood kept to the original shape by purposefully aiming to make use of the entire tree.
This hotel has great appeal for teleworkers and workcation office workers fleeing the big cities to look for a better work-life balance during Covid– exchanging crowds for nature and trees.
Guests can appreciate the aesthetic charms of this unique, high-quality room, without feeling like you are roughing it or sacrificing anything. Zero-waste is an underlying theme you have to look for, or be told about when you ask, as it is done in such a seamlessly subtle way.
For anyone like me passionate about sustainability, this is an ideal stay. And we know that travelers are seeking more sustainable travel options in 2021– so why is WHY one of the first and only zero-waste hotels in the world?
At check-out, I pick up my wicker basket of gomi containers, given my access pass and get VIP access to Kamikatsu’s famous garbage sorting yard first. I feel a bit nervous– will I live up to my own high-expectations of sustainable living? Well, I soon realize I failed as we then take the tissue from my garbage, from a runny nose– that damn Sugi cedar forest– to the incinerator only bin. I remind myself to start carrying a hanky instead, but there is only sympathy from the staff as she says tissue waste is very common.
Of the more than 45 categories available, the cans and glass drink bottles I usually choose instead of plastic goes into credit recycling– yielding the town a few yen per kilogram. I’m also relieved that I don’t have any plastic waste which would cost the town money.
The well-informed bilingual staff say that the money coming in and going out to the bigger Tokushima garbage facilities still adds up to be a lot cheaper than creating Kamikatsu’s own incinerator or landfill. The absence of incinerators and landfills also keeps the quality of the local water and land at a pristine level– better for local products like fruit, vegetables, rice, the famous ornamental leaves and Bancha tea, as well as Sake, Shochu and Craft Beer.
This zero-waste hotel WHY gives guests special access to the garbage sorting area normally kept only to local residents. In 2003, the town planners decided on a central waste sorting area as the small town did not have funds for a landfill or incinerator.
What they did invest in was composting and waste sorting, by keeping food scraps and other organic matter separated, the recycling is kept cleaner which can fetch a higher price in the resource market. The composting requirement of all residents also immediately reduced the overall amount of waste by 30%! I heard the same argument from manager Robert Reed at San Francisco’s Recology facility about the recycling value of composting in 2019. Additionally, I saw an immediate 50% reduction effect of our home “burnable” waste when I came back from my first visit to Kamikatsu in 2016 and started composting kitchen scraps and food waste.
After we leave the main garbage sorting area, we head to the grassy area near the valley for composting our food scraps. My used tea leaves and coffee grinds as well as citrus peels are in my compost container.
Once the staff open the compost box we see some composting treasure and give our best guesses as to what plant it will become– I guess bean, but others think pepper. Whatever it is it’s another great zero-waste example of effectively reusing waste.
I’d love to see vegetable gardens by the side of the hotel showing how compost can create free food– a circular economy bonus.
It’s a fun exercise as a hotel guest that can translate into changed practices at home and work as well as a greater perception of value for a hotel that is run with high ethical standards.
Kamikatsu has a long history of aiming for zero-waste, and the town deserves credit for reaching the 80% diversion from landfill milestone. Unfortunately, there is little hope to reach 100% until local residents are satisfied with living a life of needs met only by local resources. Our modern buying habits and the plastic over-packaging of most products in Japan infects even residents of this zero-waste town.
A stay at the zero-waste hotel gives me new insights and inspiration for a better, more sustainable hospitality industry. An incorporation of high-quality amenities, products and services with transparency and a dash of stylishly subtle consumer education and engagement.
One of the things I love about hotel WHY is the limit to the amount of written explanation and the focus instead on transparency and showing how sustainability is done through actions.
I hope we see more great examples of a circular-economy and zero-waste like this in practice at hotels in Japan and around the world in the near future. But, until then– it’s certainly a stand-out point of appeal for WHY to be the first and the only zero-waste hotel in Japan.
More about Zero-Waste Hotel WHY on Google Maps| Hotel WHY bookings
