Recyclable Hotels

This week budget hotel chain Travelodge announced their intention to build the world’s first recyclable hotel in Uxbridge, UK.

It will be made up of a stack of 86 steel ‘boxes’, which look a little like shipping containers. Travelodge say you won’t be able to tell the difference between this and any of their other, more traditionally built, hotels – so it won’t feel like sleeping in a container then!

The ‘boxes’ come from China and are already fitted with bathrooms, electrical wiring and plaster walls. Once stacked the final fitting is made and the hotel clad externally.

Travelodge said that this method of construction "…could facilitate the creation of hotels on a temporary basis to open in times of peak demand in certain locations - such as festivals or major sporting events.”

There is also an advantage in that at the end of their life the hotels can be quickly dismantled and the boxes salvaged for recycling. Or the entire ‘construction set’ can be moved to a new location and refitted – the first portable hotel?

It remains to be seen how ‘eco’ this venture is if the boxes have to be transported half way around the world from China, but there is an economic saving for the company – these hotels cost about £4.5 million rather than the normal £5 million to build.

More details at www.travelodge.co.uk

[Via Thoughts on Global Warming]