Worm composting on puntacana property leads to an organic initiative!

Our Worms working their Magic!

When thinking of a company one most definitely does not attach it to the idea of a resort. When thinking of a resort one most definitely does not think of Zero Waste initiatives and  recycling.

Well, Grupo PUNTACANA and its PUNTACANA Resort & Club is excited to dispel all stereotypes; we are in fact, more than just a resort. PCR&C is 15,000 acres of pure awesome. Yes, there are beaches, hotels, bars, restaurants, etcetera but apart from that there is also an ecological foundation, a local foundation, a Ranch, a fruit garden and a group of innovators and people dedicated to the preservation of the land.

PUNTACANA’s efforts are focused on recycling and reusing in order to reduce waste and consumption.PUNTACANA Resort and club is a place with blue water, white sand, and green energy. As Global 3000 puts it in this episode of The Globalization Program, "The Dominican Republic isn't just a vacation destination. Now the Caribbean state is trying to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels to preserve a little piece of paradise." View the first five minutes of this video in order to see a snip-bit of what Grupo PUNTACANA does and why our resort is not what you'd expect.

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PUNTACANA Ecological Foundation’s director Jake Kheel along with his team has been working on new strategies to optimize our facilities and land  in order to continue the cycle of sustainability. The Foundation will have new worm composting bins very soon. As Kheel describes, “We have been doing experimental worm composting as a means to treat organic waste (primarily food waste) for over 5 years. Two years ago, we shifted the primary focus of the project from finding uses for organic food waste to producing local, organic fertilizers for the golf course. To achieve this, we have consulted with experts Tom Herlihy (Worm Power) and Jack Chambers (Sonoma Valley Worm Farm) on the best practices for production of high valley worm compost. With advice from both entities, the Puntacana Ecological Foundation has implemented an "aerated compost bin" that pretreats organic materials before being fed to the worms and creates a more homogenous, parasite-free organic material. More recently we built a "continuous flow bed," an advanced system that allows the worms to produce compost continuously without interruption and in optimum conditions. We expect the system to be fully operational in May 2014.”

Worm or “Verma” composting is a great way to create fertilizer without the use of any chemicals or land-damaging techniques. The process is interesting in that the worm is directly related to the consumption habits of the human. The human eats, that food waste gets sent to the compost to then be decomposed into fertilizer that is used to plant and grow more food and thus the process continues.

The final final stage of the worm composting process

Although substantial in size, our compost is simply the tip of the iceberg. Our Zero Waste initiative is permeating throughout the all of PUNTACANA’s services and thus, products. To find out more information about the Zero Waste Alliance and what steps you can take to help our environment visit zerowaste.org and to see PUNTACANA Ecologoical    Foundation's personal efforts at continuing our visionary goal visit www.puntacana.org. Stay tuned for our next blog post and be sure to check out our YouTube channel for upcoming videos.

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