Sustainability and Sea Gypsy Village

Forge Area

We built a simple forge by cutting two old metal bins to the correct size and then cutting holes in the top. These were filled with clay cement in order to create a cavity, into which we fed a metal pipe. Iron founders in Malaysia generally use coal in order to fire their furnaces, thus having a negative environmental impact. Happily, small off cuts of wood from our work shop are perfect for feeding into our forge, meaning not one tiny piece of the wood is ever wasted. Using a small fan, air is pumped directly into the flames through the pipe so that the fire gets hot enough to melt or soften iron, brass, steel, etc.

In 2021, we upscaled the forge by increasing the amount of oxygen and decreasing the amount of heat that escaped. By welding together an old fence and adding clay cement, we made a lid, with a tiny hole in the top into which a crucible could be placed. The forge was modified to accomodate the new features, and this allowed us to get the forge temperatures up to 1’400 degrees celsius, enough to actually melt brass, zinc and aluminium.

We can now make anything from hammers, knives & spades to bench press bars, hinges and handles! The forge also allows us to recycle scrap metal found on the beach such as old oil drums and metal buoys, which is used to mend various metal tools such as wheelbarrows. It has been an immense success and has allowed the resort to become more self-sufficient than ever before.

Homemade Charcoal Production

Apart from our traditional Saturday night BBQ, we regularly BBQ delicious fish and vegetable dishes for dinner. We also use charcoal for making our scrumptious sate and now, Richard having made an amazing “toaster”, we use Parmin’s brilliant charcoal brickettes, for making breakfast toast. We purchased charcoal on the mainland until we found out that all charcoal in Malaysia is made from mangrove wood, cut from mangrove forests that are absolutely crucial to the environment. As climate change makes coastal fishing less effective, rural Malaysians are turning toward creating mangrove charcoal as a means of income, but with a mangrove tree taking upwards of 25 years to mature the demand is rapidly outgrowing the supply. The Sea Gypsies did not want to add to the problem especially when more than one in six mangrove species worldwide are in danger of extinction due to logging. After some research we found a traditional way of making charcoal using wood that had either fallen down, been pruned or had to come down due to health. The process is fairly simple, if a little time consuming. First a hot fire is built in our charcoal hut. Then, when it going strong, green palm leaves and wet sand are placed on top, so that the fire smoulders, but does not quite go out. This allows the moisture in the wood to burn away, but leaves us with a nice piece of charcoal that is very easy to burn! Now we can continue to enjoy our delicious meals in full knowledge that they do not impact the environment.

Girl walking with flippers and mask and snorkel on a beach

The Artificial Reef

In 1995 the Sea Gypsies pulled down the old water towers and tanks to create a new water system, which is what you see today. We filled the old water tanks with coconuts, secured them up with (pre plastic) fishing nets we’d found on the beach, then used salvaged rope to tie it all down. Food waste was then taken down every day to feed the fish. The fish came to feed, the coral grew and the fish stayed in abundance. Over the years anything we have to dispose of which would make an interesting addition is placed carefully on the reef and filled with food waste from the kitchen. This has included: boat hulls, toilets, melted incinerator cages, metal buoys, a tractor and even a statue! After 27 years our artificial house reef is now a self sustaining reef teeming with life, albeit it takes a bashing in the north east monsoon annually, and promotes marine life in an area with a featureless sandy bottom, i.e. the Sea Gypsy Bay, and it is a source of huge pride. It’s also a super place to take our Discover Scuba Divers.

Playground & Games

Richard & Jade Wills received some generous presents from doting relations when tiny, including a two Little Tikes play ground sets and their own small speed boat! Richard & Jade are now 30 & 29 respectively but you can still see these toys at the resort. The solid components or the Little Tikes play sets have been incorporated into wonderful “jungle gyms” and the boat hull is now a wonderful swing. Our basket ball court is the top of an old cess pit, recycled wood and net found on the beach.

Having purchased expensive board games for over 25 years our collection of “spare parts” and all sorts of bits and pieces was enormous and the actual number of games that were still playable was virtually zero. Richard had the marvelous idea of making our own boards and, if necessary, pieces. They are absolutely brilliant and all made from off cuts of wood. We make absolutely no apology to any of the large corporations that we have completely ripped off their games!

Woodwork Area & Wood Store

A new study posted in the academic journal Nature by the Netherlands institute of Ecology estimates that over 15 billion trees are chopped down each year and that 46% of the world’s trees have been cleared in the past 12,000 years.

Whilst our traditional Malay style buildings are all made of wood the Sea Gypsies do not want to add to those figures. Chalets V1 through V6 were converted by the Wills family, having originally been built pre 1992. The rest of our chalets, A frames and buildings were built by us, mostly in the 90s, but a few more as and when required.

You will note that many of our buildings are no longer straight, gradual subsidence and tree roots have shifted the land but we do not knock them down to rebuild. Unless the structure is unsound we prefer to come up with ingenious ideas to maintain them. Consequently we make no apology for some of our rather quaint looking chalets!

Furthermore, we set up a work shop in order to restore wood that we obtained from defunct resorts on the island. Nails need to be taken out, termites treated, split ends cut and flaws sanded down, but eventually almost every piece of wood can be re used as part of the resort. Not only does this decrease our carbon footprint but it’s a fun process and the Sea Gypsy staff can often be seen figuring out ways to use specific small pieces of wood!

In 2021, we expanded on this idea and started getting second hand wood from companies around Johor Bahru (our closest city). A lot of construction companies use their wood only once, either for cement work or to bolster structures under repair, and then simply throw the wood away. However, once it has been sanded and painted, it allows us to use recycled wood and saves on JB’s city waste.

Dive center with diving and snorkelling equipment

Grey Water System

In order to help preserve the supply of our delicious drinkable well water the Sea Gypsies have created a grey water system for the staff accommodation and laundry. Grey water is any water that while not drinkable, has not been tainted by human waste, i.e. from sinks, showers and washing machines and is therefore perfect for flushing toilets. Each time a toilet is flushed it uses about two liters of water, so we estimate we save over 100 liters of drinking water daily. The waste water is collected in a holding tank, where it is filtered with a homemade filter for any large particles. It is then pumped through three filters, rock, micro and charcoal, before being pumped into a second “clean” holding tank. From there, it is plumbed into the Wills house and the nine staff rooms.

Vermikompost & Soil Management

It can take up to 500 years for a disposable nappy to decompose. Even when a nappy is burned or incinerated, it releases a harmful chemical called TBT (Tributyl) into the atmosphere, and the sludge that results takes 200 years to biodegrade. A solution was found in 2010 when Linda discovered biodegradable nappies made out of bamboo and cloth fibers. When mixed with compostable materials such as scrap vegetables, these decompose within a matter of months and have almost no environmental foot print. However, rather than simply throwing them into a composting pile (which does not always allow for enough light or air), we decided on a worm compost.

The way that it works is simple. We found a large water tank from an old resort along the beach, and then, using iron rebar and wire meshing, created a filter in the centre of it. The worms, the bio waste, and the nappies are all placed into the top of a large container, and slowly, the worms munch through everything. Every week, the top layer is turned manually, and all the worm scat falls through the mesh to the floor of the container. This is compost, and this is what allows us to grow all the flowers you can see around the resort (as the sandy soil is not exactly conducive to plant growth).

In 2022, after building our dog grooming station, we also found compostable dog poo bags, the contents and bag of which break up within 6 months.

However, be careful if you decide to do this at home for your biodradable nappies, only Red Wrigglers and African Night Crawlers will eat human feces. These worms are available for worm farms.

Plant Waste & Plant Management

From 1992 until 1996 Sea Gypsy had beautiful grass and the lawn mover was used in one area or another almost daily. In 1996 the new manager ordered rakes and our grounds staff kept the place free of any and all “debris” that fell to earth. This continued until 2015 until we suddenly had an epiphany and realised the reason we no longer had any grass was because of the raking! We were not allowing anything to mulch into the sandy soil and so the grass died and could not grow back. This is why you will find pine needles littering the garden, however, and as you will see, the grass is slowly but surely making a comeback.

Because we don’t like using poisons around our plants (as all the insects add to the fragile ecosystem of the island), we have also found a better way of keeping the little creepy crawlies away without killing them (its also the only really good use for tobacco). After a little research, we boiled the remnants of cigarettes (or cigarette butts) in an old tin can, and then allowed the water to cool. We sprayed it on our lime trees, and hey presto, no more bugs! A really good method of plant care that you can try yourself at home.

Recycling Bins

Prior to 1992, when the Wills family started Sea Gypsy Village Resort & Dive Base, all rubbish was either dumped in the jungle or burned in the open. Since then the Sea Gypsies have always recycled glass, tins, plastic and food waste. Located around the resort you will see the recycling bins including the blue one for bio-degradable nappies ONLY, please look at your waste and put it into the correct bin.

Recycling Area

The recycling processing and sorting centre of Sea Gypsy is where waste from our resort bins and those we leave on the surrounding islands are bought for sorting, cleaning and packing to be sent to our warehouse in Johor Bahru. There they are washed, sorted again and given a final check before sending to the smelting depot. We only ever use recycling plants that pay us for our rubbish, thereby ensuring that all our plastics and tins are actually being recycled, rather than simpy being thrown into a dump.

Incinerator

Not everything can be recycled (unfortunately that includes a lot of rubbish that we collect from the beach because it has oil or other contaminants on it) we have to employ BAT - Best Available Techniques. This is why the Sea Gypsies researched and designed our incinerator, to burn at the highest, most efficient temperature possible to minimise emissions into the atmosphere. The first incinerator actually melted the stones around it and collapsed on itself! So we have now incinerator 2.0, nicknamed “Muspelheim”, the fire world of norse mythology. It has a retaining wall made out of rebar and concrete and an inner wall constructed with fire proof bricks and mortar. A cage is in the middle to allow for a good circulation of oxygen, and an industrial fan keeps the fire going until every piece of rubbish is gone. The ash can then be used for plastering cement and also to bolster jungle paths!

Upcycling

Running an off grid island resort, where popping to the shops isn’t an option, the cost of road and boat transportation for one item is insane, or weather and sea conditions make it impossible, has allowed the Sea Gypsies to become masters of upcycling and improvisation. For example, in 2020 the glass fuel filter that services both generators smashed on the floor. It was impossible to get a new one at the time, which left Richard a blubbering mess in the front of the generator room. To the rescue came maintenance man Parmin, who within the hour had repurposed an old Marmite jar, which to this day still keeps our entire generator system together! Old pipes are used as shuttlecock holders, ice cream containers receive a batik top and become storage containers, old mosquito nets protect newly planted trees and a 100 other things that can be found around the resort. No matter what the material, you can be sure the Sea Gypsies will find another use for it.

Whilst we hesitate to use the appellation 'Eco-Resort' the Sea Gypsies have always been concerned with being as eco-friendly as possible and have developed numourous processes to reduce our carbon footprint.

We proudly give our guests free tours of the resort to educate and inspire people on how easy and cost effective sustainability can be, and by popular demand we have made this page to spread the info far and wide.