7 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Travel Waste Footprint

Who doesn’t like travelling? An exciting new place to explore, exotic food to sample, a different culture to experience. 

But whether you’re lounging on a white sand beach, or getting lost in an ancient city, do you ever stop to think about how much waste you’re leaving in your wake? 

Before even stepping off the plane, it’s likely that you’ve gone through your own body weight in plastic packaging. And with way over one billion tourists travelling abroad in 2017, it’s needless to say, that this is a cause for concern. 

When you’re in full holiday mode, it’s hard to keep focused on cutting down your waste, and too right! You should be focusing all your energy on holidaying. 

But it’s actually easier than you think to avoid building up your plastic bottle, cup, straw and cutlery count.

We’re going to share with you some rather crafty tips on how to effortlessly cut down on your travel waste. 

Our Top Tips to Cut Down on Travel Waste:

    1. Reusable bottles.

The gob-smacking 2.7 million tonnes of plastic used for water bottles worldwide every year is enough to keep us awake at night. The thing is, it’s so easily avoided! 

Simply pack a reusable water bottle, and if you are somewhere where you can’t trust the water, invest in a travel-sized water purification systems. Simple, but so effective! A good quality stainless steel bottle will keep your water ice-cold, your coffee piping hot, and our oceans free of plastic.

    2. Reusable coffee cups

It is likely that you will be powering through countless cups of coffee as you charge around cities on your break, so why not bring a reusable coffee cup? 

Go the extra-mile and get one that is made out of natural fibres, like corn starch, and bamboo. Check out some of the nifty products on the market, or pop in to any decent cafe or department store, there are literally thousands of options.

   3. Bamboo straws

Speaking of bamboo, why drink through a nasty, cheap plastic straw, when you can slurp up your beverage through a sustainably sourced bamboo one?

A recent study found that over 500 million plastic straws are used daily in America alone! Join the movement to rid the planet of plastic straws, and buy a bamboo one for life.

Not only is it good on your conscience, you can use it again and again..and again.

   4. Collapsible chopsticks 

Travelling around China or Japan? 

The Chinese get through an estimated 45 billion wooden chopsticks a year, that’s the equivalent of hacking down 100-acres of forest every 24-hours. 

Solution: Just bring your own chopsticks. There are hundreds of collapsible chopsticks on the market. They fold down neatly so you can take them out to breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

   5. Sunglasses: Don’t chuck them, fix them!

What else can sun-seeking travellers do to cut down on their waste? Stop throwing away your broken sunnies! 

We’ve all done it, bent over to pick something up forgetting that your favourite pair of Ray-Bans are resting on your head. What happens next? Well, usually a shattered lens or two (depending on how tall you are). 

But don’t chuck them out, just get the lenses replaced. With just a few clicks of your computer mouse, services like TheSunglassFix will send you replacement lenses without you needing to leave the comfort of your couch, hammock or tent. 

Just type in your sunglass model, and they’ll send over a replacement to any home address worldwide with free shipping. 

They stock a very large range of over 105,000 high-quality models, but they can also create any lens you specify.

   6. Eco-toothbrush

In twenty years time we will all look back and think, plastic toothbrushes, really? But seriously, how many do you reckon you’ve used in your lifetime? Worse still, how many do you get through whilst you’re travelling?

There are some truly awesome products out there that don’t use a scrap of plastic, many of which are made completely from wood and natural fibres.

Better still, buy a wooden toothbrush with a replaceable head. 

Top Traveler Tip: There is no good taking your beech wood toothbrush if you forget to pack it in your hand luggage when flying. Avoid those horrid plastic one-use toothbrushes (and their plastic covering) the airlines provide, and scrub your gnashers with an eco-toothbrush.

   7. Mesh shopping bag

Click here… Shocking right? That’s how many plastic bags are used per year. Annually, we use 5 trillion plastic bags. That’s 160,000 a second. 

Don’t ever use a plastic bag again,  buy a mesh shopping bag for life. These are great for carrying your groceries, shopping, or even as a day bag.

To preserve the world’s natural beauty, it’s important that we all make an effort to reduce the amount of waste we leave behind whilst travelling. These seven simple tips won’t make you perfect, but they’ll sure get you going along the right path. And once you’ve started, it’s hard to ever think of going back.