Inside Bali’s Potato Head: I visited a luxury hotel that is redefining zero-waste travel

It was on a bus driving by the northern desert of Uzbekistan when an American girl I’d simply met turned to me and stated, ‘Oh, you do environmental journey tales – have you ever been to Potato Head?’

I hadn’t. In truth, my first response was that it seemed like a venue out of Toy Story, hosted by Mr and Mrs Potato Head themselves.

How unsuitable I used to be. It’s really a luxurious eco resort in Indonesia and, based on her, the “most legit sustainable resort” she’d ever been to. “Don’t hesitate,” she stated, “simply go.”

With a declare as sturdy as this, there was no manner I wasn’t going to look into it. In fact, the concept of a luxurious resort, with flights to achieve it and spacious rooms and swimming pools, being ‘sustainable’ in any respect would possibly elevate eyebrows.

Can a vacation spot for jet-setters ever be actually eco-conscious? Potato Head doesn’t declare to have all of the solutions, however it’s a place the place you don’t have to decide on between doing good and feeling good.

Two weeks after my probability encounter in Uzbekistan, I’m on the airplane from London to Bali, with sky-high expectations.

A design-led expertise

My eyes are drawn first to the structure at Potato Head. I’m met on the entrance by a dramatic courtyard surrounded by lush greenery – virtually like a “tropical Barbican” (an icon of Brutalist structure, for my non-London-based readers).

The buildings containing the studios are made out of roughly two million hand-pressed terracotta bricks from close by villages, and the ground beneath me is shiny and vibrant, crafted from a mix of damaged ceramics and glass from the realm.

From a design perspective alone, I quickly realised this was not like any resort I had ever stayed at. Removed from marble lobbies and the sanitised opulence of your common luxurious chain, Potato Head felt totally different.

You don’t essentially discover that every one the partitions and supplies are constituted of recycled supplies, as a result of it’s all adorned so elegantly. However end up absent-mindedly staring on the ceiling in reception, whenever you arrive, at intricate inexperienced crochet woven out of outdated Sprite bottles.

The outside of the resort’s seaside membership subsequent door is much more hanging, constructed utterly out of reclaimed picket shutters, salvaged from throughout Java, and the roof is thatched out of 5,000 flip-flops collected from the shoreline.

The truth that the luxurious really feel of Potato Head attracts an upmarket crowd, who don’t even realise they’re staying in a spot that’s pioneering zero-waste in Indonesia, is maybe the very best half.

Friends are even inspired to participate in seaside clean-ups day-after-day. In the event you refill a basket, you get a token for a free drink – fairly the motivation, given how good the cocktails are.

Nearly nothing contained in the resort is disposable. Take the candles on each floor – glass holders constituted of the underside half of used wine bottles, and the candle itself a mixture of beeswax and the used chip fats oil from the kitchen.

Sure particulars catch your eye – just like the oyster shells from the fish restaurant, which get threaded and become decorations, the coconut slippers in my bed room, or the employees aprons constituted of worn-out mattress linen.

Then there are the numerous objects we take without any consideration in resorts, cleaning soap bottles, refillable shampoo bottles, coasters and the glass and kitchenware, that are all constituted of collected plastic and become merchandise of their waste studio.

You may even sit on these creations. Led by British designer Max Lamb, a brand new assortment of chairs referred to as WASTED is launching in early August to the general public. They had been so smooth and exquisite (as if they belonged in a gallery) that I needed to take all of them dwelling to adorn my small London flat. Sadly, they wouldn’t slot in my suitcase.

Pioneering zero waste in the neighborhood

The waste factor shouldn’t be an arrogance challenge both. Bali’s pure magnificence is world-renowned, however beneath its pristine seashores lies a mounting environmental disaster. The island produces a staggering 1.6 million tonnes of waste annually, together with 330,000 tonnes of plastic.

Due to ineffective waste administration, a lot of the garbage goes uncollected. Vital quantities find yourself in rivers and finally within the ocean, threatening Bali’s ecosystem, the livelihood of its communities and the tourism business on which it relies upon.

By changing into 97.5 per cent zero waste itself, Potato Head (which is B Corp licensed) is performing as a shining instance within the area. Now they’re increasing out to the area people, too.

Along with a number of different close by companies, Potato Head has launched a neighborhood waste challenge, geared toward drastically lowering the island’s landfill waste and setting a brand new normal for sustainability in Indonesia.

To show Bali’s waste into sensible, inexpensive merchandise for the hospitality business, they’ve constructed a 2,000 m² recycling centre to course of natural, inorganic and backyard waste by a journey of superior sorting, composting and upcycling.

Founder Ronald Akili tells me, “Regenerative hospitality shouldn’t be a fad – it’s a strong instrument for change, however there’s nonetheless a lot left to do. We hope to encourage the subsequent era of journey.”

The purpose is to chop waste from collaborating companies within the area from over 50 per cent to a daring goal of simply 5 per cent – and they’re effectively on their manner already.

In fact, whereas Potato Head has the capital and artistic clout to steer Bali’s zero-waste motion, it stays to be seen how broadly its improvements might be adopted by smaller, much less resource-rich gamers within the tourism business.

Powered by vegetation

All through your keep, right here’s what I’d suggest consuming and consuming. There are three eating places, however my favorite was the plant-based ‘Tanaman’.

After a Balinese flower bathtub in your room, the place bathwater is re-used to nourish the resort’s greenery afterwards, head down for a cocktail with a twist.

The native tackle a Negroni is made with a natural bitter as a substitute of Campari, topped with Balinese candlenut. These seeds are solely present in Southeast Asia and Polynesia and provides it a gentle nutty, creamy bitterness.

The ‘cactus margarita’ was additionally scrumptious – blended with a spicy mezcal and topped with the island’s quite common dragonfruit. The cocktails had been so good that I had two earlier than I’d even began my meal.

To eat, I couldn’t get sufficient of the crispy jackfruit ‘nuggets’ with candy chilli sauce. On your important, get the tempeh satay with peanut sauce and vegan prawn crackers – constituted of the seeds of the melinjo tree. For dessert, I inhaled the Balinese cacao mousse with vegan chocolate ganache and beetroot gel – the right mix of candy and bitter – and never too heavy.

All of the eating places are within the strategy of making certain {that a} quarter of their meals menus produce a byproduct too, like turning breadcrumbs into soy sauce, turning the white a part of watermelons into pickles or utilizing leftover tomato pores and skin as a powder for the chips they serve.

And for the wine lovers? There was an natural wine night hosted at Dome restaurant whereas I used to be staying there – a collaboration with Argentinian label Santa Julia.

I used to be handled to a easy orange wine by the distinctive in-house sommelier, Minyoung Ryu, hailing from South Korea, who taught me all about skin-contact chardonnay. Minyoung, together with lots of the resort employees I spoke with, stated she was proud to be a part of a motion shifting perceptions of Bali’s hospitality sector.

From mangroves to manta rays: Be certain to discover Bali

Once I may carry myself to depart the resort’s poolside, I travelled north to the rice fields and forests of Ubud, to see the monkeys and pattern conventional candy treats. My favorite was Laklak, little rice flour pancakes with grated coconut and brown sugar syrup.

Ubud can also be dwelling to many temples. I visited the Pyramids of Chi, a sound‑therapeutic sanctuary the place I took half in a deeply religious breathwork class. In the event you haven’t tried breathwork, I extremely suggest it.

Venturing 40 minutes by boat from the mainland to the island of Nusa Lembongan, I went scuba diving with manta rays and even a bamboo shark. Then I drove down the south coast to breathe in salty air on the cliffs of Uluwatu as surfers skimmed throughout the floor of the ocean.

From the resort itself, I additionally took a canoe journey to a close-by mangrove forest, inside the Ngurah Rai Grand Forest Park in Benoa Bay, to litter decide and plant some mangrove seeds. The water displays the dense greenery round you within the canoe, like a mirror within the late afternoon mild. It’s an entire escape from the bustling streets of Seminyak.

The purpose is to not be sustainable for the sake of it

Earlier than I left the UK, I requested some buddies who’d been to Bali in the event that they knew about Potato Head. Their responses had been unanimous: “The enjoyable seaside membership in Seminyak?” It’s well-known for its day (and evening) membership with poolside cocktails and beautiful sunsets.

However nobody I requested knew in regards to the inexperienced aspect of Potato Head.

Why? As a result of the ethos of the resort is to not reel in sustainably-minded travellers – it’s to draw these after an opulent, wellness-centred expertise, with distinctive structure and distinctive meals.

“Our mission is to make the expertise lovely – it simply so occurs to be extra sustainable,” Akili informed me.

“We purpose for progress over perfection,” he concludes. So far as I can see, they arrive fairly shut.