The big bin dive – small wins on waste reduction at The Victoria.

February 26, 2026 | WONDER | 3 minute read

Since achieving our first Gold Green Tourism Award back in 2016, the team at The Victoria have worked tirelessly to continuously improve our sustainability practices and keep pushing the (recycled) envelope on operating more ethically. The opportunities for change come in two categories: Big Ambitions and Small Wins.

With a few Big Ambition projects in the pipeline (watch this space!) attention turned to the Small Wins, with a key focus on waste. Year on year, we have reduced the amount of general waste that is produced, but the management felt that we could push this even further, undertaking a bin dive to get up close and personal with what remained in our rubbish.

Across a week, all general waste was bagged and stored in an allocated area of the bin compound, ready to be sifted through by Managing Director, Ben. (Compostable) gloves donned, Ben emptied bag after bag, revealing an array of blue- roll, cartons, cling film and supplier packaging. There was also evidence of some misplaced items that belonged in the compost or recycling, but overall, these were few and where items were mixed it appeared to be from the public bins in the car parks, rather than those within the hotel itself.

Armed with this information, discussions were had with Heads of Department and solutions proposed for handling the remaining general waste; some of these included replacing or eradicating items all together, replacing blue-roll for the recycled and compostable equivalent of brown-roll, and reducing the amount of product used by moving to washable, reusable micro-fibre cloths. To prevent cross-contamination of waste, new bins with separate compartments were added to the kitchen, and signage was placed in every department, clearly stating which items go into which bin.

Where sustainable alternatives were up to 10 times more expensive, in particular compostable clingfilm and sponges, a focus on reduction of use and extension of life was proposed: by only using clingfilm when reusable storage boxes were not suitable, and by cutting the sponges in half, the usable lifespan of each product was extended considerably.

Since the bin dive, Heads of Departments have continued to question what else can be done, from replacing general waste bins in bedrooms with compost caddies, to ceasing the use of bin bags.

Accumulating Small Wins is a proven theory for success; Sir Dave Brailsford, Performance Director of the British Cycling Team, implemented the Marginal Gains Theory in 2003 – improving 1% of everything you do every day – and led the team to become one of the most successful in the sports history; winning 178 world championships and 66 Olympic and Paralympic medals by 2017.

There is always space for incremental change, and if improving 1% every day led the British Cycling Team to Gold, I have no doubt it will do the same for The Victoria when we are assessed by Green Tourism once again.

To find out more about WONDER, our sustainability strategy, click here.