Author’s Note: This is the first item in a series of articles that touch on the subject of sustainable practices in Costa Rica. There is a high degree of innovation and street smarts involved in sustainability; if you happen to know of a good sustainability tip, please feel free to share it with The Costa Rica Star.

There are some aspects of sustainability that may strike people as revolting. Take composting, for example; at its most rudimentary level, composting involves allowing worms and fungi to grow in a decomposed pile of organic and biodegradable waste while periodically adding water and stirring up the resulting humus and biomass.

In a previous article published by The Costa Rica Star, the work of a sharp young Tico who wants to outfit his indigenous Maleku community with biodigesters that turn human and animal waste into fuel for cooking. For those who are extra-queasy, the thought of bell peppers roasted over fire that is fueled by gas produced from waste might seem a bit off-putting.

Laundry Waste Water Supports Fish Life

Very few of us would know what to do with the soapy water that ends up as a byproduct of doing our laundry. At the Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel in the Los Angeles Private Biological Reserve near San Ramon, the hotel’s laundry waste water is drained into a stream that cascades and flows down a series of pools and ends up in a fish pond.

Wendy Gordon, who sits on the board of the prominent Rainforest Alliance ecological conservation group, described the Villa Blanca system in a letter to the Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire:

“During one of our breaks, Jim took us on a short tour of the sustainability operations.

He brought us to a narrow glen and we stopped on a small bridge watching water cascading from a waterfall into one pool and then another and then another until it finally came to rest in a larger pool filled with tilapia. The pools were wreathed with Heliconia, bromeliads, orchids, and ferns, and mosses and lichens blanketed the rocks and trees.”

There is no danger to the fish swimming in that pond, which doubles as a tilapia aquaculture farm. The Villa Blanca staff in charge of laundry operations only uses chlorine-free soap, and therefore toxic substances do not build up in the water.

Later that evening, Ms. Gordon had tilapia from that pond for dinner. This was her reaction:

“Some might say “yuck” but I ate the fish for dinner that evening and thought it was delicious.”

She also mentioned that “once you’ve seen the ponds and the plants that treat the water that washed your laundry”, there would be no reservations about eating the farmed fish.