TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Busch Theme Parks Introduce Green Initiatives

Sea World Orlando file photo

Both salmon fed to Shamu and seafood served to guests in restaurants at the Sea World parks will be will be purchased from sustainable-managed fisheries.

ADVERTISEMENT

By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 3, 2008

TAMPA - Busch Entertainment Corp.'s 10 theme parks, including Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, are going green with a series of initiatives including restaurant plates made from sugar cane.

Included among the culinary, waste management and water savings measures:

• Both seafood served to guests in restaurants and salmon fed to Shamu at the Sea World parks will be will be purchased from sustainable-managed fisheries. That will affect more than 220,000 pounds of seafood by early 2009.

• Plates, forks, knives and spoons that look and feel like plastic are being made from renewable resources such as vegetable starch and sugarcane. The new products will replace 12.5 million pieces of dinnerware the parks dispose of each year.

• Irrigation for landscaping will include collections of rain water and condensation from air conditioners, Xeriscaping — a technique using drought-resistant plants that require little or no irrigation — is being employed in many areas throughout the parks.

• Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is expanding its recycling of traditional materials such as plastics and metals, along with 3 million pounds of animal manure annually.

• Busch Gardens Williamsburg uses a process in which every piece of recyclable material is removed by hand. That keeps more than 1,340 tons of trash out of area landfills — nearly the weight of the steel track for the park's dive coaster, Griffon.

• Discovery Cove in Orlando collects and donates feathers the park's birds shed through molting to the Feather Distribution Project, a program in which they are reused by the Pueblo tribe of the Southwest in traditional religious ceremonies, reducing the illegal trade in endangered macaws.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT