Our best, proven, tips on how to use less plastic while travelling.
Plastic is an epidemic and at the same time so intricately woven into our daily lives that thinking of living without it sounds impossible. On the other hand, every time we see a new photo of a Bali’s beach covered in a carpet of plastic garbage we shed a tear.
Since we know you, like us, want to still travel but at the same time make sure you have the least impact possible on the planet, we have collected some easy tips based on our everyday struggles and efforts to reduce plastic while travelling.
Photo by Tom Holmes on Unsplash
Say no to plastic straws
According to Lonely Whale, the average American uses over 35,000 of them in a lifetime. That’s 35,000 straws, per American, potentially reaching the ocean as garbage.
Straws are the easiest thing to say no to, as many drinks can definitely be drank without a straw if you really think about. On the other hand, we understand that there are plenty of straws lovers out there or some type of drinks that do require a straw. In this case the solutions for you are ready available online. Get yourself a stainless steel, glass or bamboo straws and carry it with you in your bag, purse or backpack.
Carry a water purifier like the Grayl
If these stats don’t shock you then you might not have a heart: globally humans buy a million plastic bottles per minute and 91% of all plastic are not recycled. Most of these bottles flood the oceans, killing whales and other sea creatures, and are generally the plague of our time.
Our life and our impact on the environment dramatically changed the moment we bought a Grayl Water Purifier. We never ever had to buy another plastic bottle as we can now purify any type of water (beside ocean and sea water), on the go. The powerful filter in the Grayl Geopress water purifier captures pathogens and inorganic contaminants like a magnet , filters more impurities and toxins like chemicals and heavy metals better than block or granulated carbon and has a antimicrobial agents that keep the purifier fresh between uses. Each cartridge lasts up to 300 uses (150L).
We couldn't recommend this product enough, it literally changed our way of traveling! Get you Grayl here.
Always carry a canvas bag
A canvas bag is possibly one of the most useful items while travelling, with uncountable uses. Beside being perfect as a bag when you go out to carry your essentials (wallets, jacket, water bottles), it’s perfect to avoid having to use a plastic bag at the supermarkets or markets.
Buy fruits and veg at markets
There is a recurrent joke on how a fruits natural packaging (its skin) is not good enough so supermarkets repackage them in plastic containers, ridiculous we know. Too bad it is not only a joke as we really did find peeled oranges in sealed plastic cubes, to cater for the lazy consumer we can only imagine. The question that raises is just ‘WHY?’. To avoid hyper packaged foods, ridiculous amount of plastic containers and bags and to be categorized as part of the lazy consumer crowd, ditch supermarkets and make your way to markets and food stalls around the city. In most countries there will be weekend markets where you can buy fresh produce (fruits , veggies and much more) which only come in their natural package and can be conveniently be carry with your above mentioned pretty canvas bag.
Carry metal cutlery and cups
This is a big one guys, much more useful than you might imagine before leaving for a travel.
We were so lucky to receive a set of stainless steel cutlery from a friend of ours as a gift for our South America trip and they saved our lives! When you travel for long you will definitely not want to eat out everyday and sometimes you will stay at hostel which does not have a fully fitted kitchen (or are just missing cutlery, it happened to us). Your set of cutlery will make sure your don’t have to buy plastic ones.
What if you are travelling for short period of time and always eating out you say? Well in that case they could still turn out useful when, for example, eating an ice-cream, eating a snack, peeling a peach (and I could continue!).
We are not going to tell you that it’s easy because we know it requires a certain discipline and definitely an adjustment to usual behaviours. But it’s definitely worth it, for you, for the Earth, for our present and for the future.
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