After months of lockdown, it’s natural that you deserve a holiday break. Unfortunately, traveling has a huge impact on the environment, and many travelers leave behind them a significant amount of waste without even noticing. From disposable water bottles and wet wipes to shopping bags and flip-flops or single-use toiletries in hotels, plastics are involved in every step of your journey.
To enjoy your holiday without damaging the environment, here are EcoGrip’s Five tips to reduce your waste whilst traveling.
Bring your Zero Waste Kit
Our first advice would be to travel with a Zero Waste kit. Nothing too heavy or complicated here, but bringing a refillable bottle, a coffee cup, a Tote Bag and camping cutlery will prevent you from using single-use items. This is the best way to reduce waste whilst traveling.
For your toiletries, avoid small 100ml plastic packaging if you can. Instead, bring your own shampoo bar and solid soap, so you won’t need to use single-use toiletries in hotels or planes, which most of the time end up in the bin, even if they are still half full.
All our trips are free from single-use plastic so that way we can guarantee that there is no impact on nature when you decide to have an adventure with us.
Explore local Zero Waste Tour Operators/SHOPS
When trying to live a zero-waste lifestyle, it can be tricky to find bulk shops if you are traveling away from home. A great option can be to go to the farmers market, where you will find the best locally sourced products. Also, try to find hotels with good sustainability plans and eco-friendly backgrounds when it comes to waste management.
Our Boathouse offers zero single-use plastic experience keeping our traditions of sustainability in the forefront of every activity we do.
Book a plastic free holiday
Travelers are becoming more and more aware of issues related to waste and are seeking more eco-friendly holidays. Some hotels and tour operators got the message, and are now offering plastic-free holidays, where you can relax without stressing about bumping into some unnecessary plastics. All our expeditions and short kayak tours are plastic-free and this includes our boathouse!
Volunteer to cleanup
While you are on a holiday, check out what you can do to help the planet like a local. By volunteering, you can help the planet while meeting people who care about the environment as much as you do. Why not take part in our river cleanup kayaking session for example? Also, look up local SM groups or NGOs which regularly organize beach clean-ups. If you are traveling in remote places, pick up any plastic in national parks, many people leave plastics inside them seriously damaging the ecosystem.
You can even combine sightseeing and litter picking with EcoGrip during our kayak tours simply ask for a mesh, and the plastic you collect will be sent for recycling.
Hand them to a Recycling center
When you can’t avoid waste, make sure you recycle it properly. Recycling collection systems are on the rise so please make good use of them.
