We all sometimes dream of those sandy white beaches, sipping a coconut while enjoying the sunset. The thing is that these paradise-like places are full of plastic waste. So read along and discover tips for eco-tourism: learn about steps that you can take to keep our beaches pristine.
To us, plastic bottles and cups are cheap and harmless. But nature pays a high price. If you don’t want to add to the ocean’s plastic soup while travelling, here’s what you can do in certain moments:
Tips for eco-drinking
A refillable water bottle has to become your best companion — no matter whether you travel to the nearest park in your hometown or the Amazon jungle. Of course, you might make your way to regions where clean drinking water is not easily accessible. In this case, a smart move is to invest in a water bottle with a filter.
A reusable cup should be in your bag always. Take a cup with you and enjoy your coffee-to-go whenever you wish. You've got several options, like a bamboo fibre cup, a thermos flask, or a glass coffee cup. In our webshop, we offer a very nice one: resealable, made of glass, and with a sleeve of cork to hold it.
Vietnamese coffee vendor.
Tips for eco-eating
Eating on the hoof and travelling go hand-in-hand, and entail quite some inconvenience. How do you reduce waste if you still want to fuel yourself for new adventures? A single reusable food container and cutlery set will solve a handful of problems. Ask the local street vendors to pour your drink into your reusable cup and to put your food into your food container.
Eating on the street lets you taste different cultures - whether it's the famous Asian street food, Italian gelato or Dutch stroopwafels. Avoid single-use plastic plates, wraps, and forks. Take with you a reusable cutlery set and munch on your favourite street food without guilt.
Eating on the plane is a relatively important aspect of travelling by plane for some. But taking a homemade lunch box with you saves two birds with one stone: (1) yourself from consuming that suspicious lukewarm substance they serve onboard, and (2) our planet from choking from another single-use non-recyclable plastic tableware.
At any given time, it's smart to prepare a container with your favourite snacks before you leave home or your hotel/hostel. This way, sudden bouts of hunger won’t catch you off guard. The result – you won’t let you get hAngry and seek salvation in the nearest fast food store.
Local street vendor selling corn.
General tips for eco-tourism
What seems to dissolve and disappear in the shower drain leaves a huge footprint. Therefore, avoid flushing polluting chemicals into the environment and use cosmetic products of organic origin instead. This way, you keep the planet just as clean as yourself. The best is to choose body bars over shower-gel, natural deodorants over aerosol, and solid shampoo bars over the liquid ones. By the way, did you know that these bars are lighter and last much longer than their liquid alternatives?
The same goes for toothbrushes, combs and other plastic items that your good looking self needs. The plastic ones are unrecyclable in most cases. For this reason, they end up in landfills and nature and stay there for hundreds of years. Organic materials like bamboo are not just eco-friendly but also way less harmful than plastics. And generally, doesn’t bamboo have a better feel to it than out-dated plastic?
Buy less!
Avoid plastic bags. A carefully folded shopper bag doesn’t take much room in your luggage. It saves you from using one nondurable plastic bag after another whenever you shop.
Give preference to local products. Here are a few reasons. Firstly, importing goods from across the world leaves a much larger carbon footprint than transporting from the local farm to the market. Secondly, products at markets usually come without unnecessary layers of packaging. And thirdly, you didn’t travel that far to buy all the same things as you would at home, right?!
Develop a minimalist mindset. Generally speaking, shop less. Think twice before an impulse takes over. Will you really starve without that pack of cookies? Do you really “have nothing to dress tonight”? Is that souvenir essential to make the trip memorable? The less you buy now; the less will end up in landfills later on.
Do you have any other tips for eco-tourism? Please, share how you're travelling waste-free. Leave a comment below to inspire more people!
