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ECO & SUSTAINABILITY, RESPONSIBLE TRAVEL · May 6, 2019
Last Updated on July 26, 2024

10 EASY WAYS TO AVOID SINGLE-USE PLASTICS WHEN TRAVELING

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At We Are Travel Girls we are very excited about the growing trend towards eco travel / responsible travel in 2019. As part of Travel Girls Giving, which is focused on giving back though travel, and responsible travel and eco tourism, I have personally committed myself to writing articles focused on traveling more sustainably.
 
Last month I received a press release announcing that Barbados has  banned single-use plastics. I am inspired to see islands like Bali and Barbados make big steps to fight against the excessive waste created by tourism.
 
I was also personally very excited to receive this announcement about Barbados as this beautiful Caribbean Island is where I got married in 2014, and will always hold a very special place in my heart.
 
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Billions of plastic waste items are destroying our oceans, lakes, and rivers as well as eco-systems and wildlife on land. According to EarthDay.org, in 2016 world plastics production totaled around 335 million metric tons, and roughly half of annual plastic production is destined for a single-use product.
 
Humans buy 1,000,000+ plastic bottles per minute, and only about 23% of plastic bottles are recycled within the U.S. Plastic pollution is devastating our global eco-systems and single-use plastics have a large-scale impact on our entire earth.
 
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I have to admit that I struggle to avoid single-use plastics on a daily basis and even more so when traveling. But hearing about worldwide efforts to cut down on waste and avoid single-use plastics has given me a renewed sense of responsibility to make changes in my own life to live and travel more sustainably. 
 
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by how much waste and pollution is being created daily around the world, but each of us can make a significant difference if we just make small changes in our lives. In this article I am sharing 10 easy ways to avoid single-use plastics when traveling to inspire you to help cut down your plastic waste!
 
10 Ways To Avoid Single-Use Plastics When Traveling

1) USE A REUSABLE WATER BOTTLE

Using a reusable water bottle when traveling and in your daily life will help you significantly cut down on your consumption of plastic water bottles. On our recent Travel Girls Getaways Ski Retreat we stayed at an eco hotel in the Austrian Alps and held a sustainability talk. For this trip I pledged to use zero plastic water bottles and I am proud to say I was able to do it and it was very easy!
 
I brought my reusable water bottle from home and filled it up at a drinking fountain at LAX. On my flight to London I asked my flight attendant if she could fill my bottle back up for me. She smiled and said of course and then came by three more times during the flight to see if I needed more water.
 
Don’t be afraid to ask a flight attendant to re-fill your reusable water bottle for you! They don’t mind! And even though they are generally re-filling your water from large plastic bottles, it still significantly cuts down on your single-use plastic consumption when you don’t use dozens of small plastic water bottles on every flight you take.
 
10 Ways To Avoid Single-Use Plastics When Traveling

2) CHOOSE ECO HOTELS

The first time I visited Bali was for my honeymoon. We stayed at the Belmond Jimbaran Puri and while the hotel was gorgeous they supplied all their drinking water to guests in plastic bottles when just outside the hotel grounds locals were burning piles and piles of plastic water bottles and other waste on the beaches.
 
I drink a lot of water and one day I looked in our bedroom trash can at the hotel to find 10+ plastic bottles that had all been consumed by me in just one day! I was embarrassed and shocked but the whole experience and vowed to make a concise effort to stay at eco hotels whenever possible from there on out.
 
As I type this I am currently staying at the 1 Hotel South Beach. There are a lot of great hotels in South Beach but I try to always stay here when I come to town because I love their dedication to sustainably without sacrificing luxury and fun. Recently I put together a list of 20 Of The World’s Best Eco Hotels which is a great start if you are looking to take an eco luxury getaway.
 
One of the many wonderful things that eco hotels do to cut down on waste and pollution is avoid single-use plastics. Most of them don’t use plastic water bottles, or plastic straws or plastic silverware unless it is recycled, so by choosing an eco hotel you can significantly cut down on your single-use plastic consumption during your next trip! If you know of any good budget eco hotels please leave these in the comments as I want to put together a list of these as well!
 
10 Ways To Avoid Single-Use Plastics When Traveling

3) SAY NO TO DISPOSABLE STRAWS & SILVERWARE 

Bring a reusable straw and reusable silverware with you everywhere you go! This will help you significantly cut down on your single-use plastic consumption in your daily life and when traveling.
 
Paper straws don’t work well and neither does plastic silverware so consider totting these little items around your small sacrifice for better dinning on the go, along with helping the planet! My daughter is obsessed with coconuts so I make sure to bring reusable straws for her on all our vacations.
 
10 Ways To Avoid Single-Use Plastics When Traveling

4) CARRY REUSABLE TO GO CONTAINERS

I appreciate you don’t want to walk round with a backpack full of tupperware containers but if you bring one medium container with a smaller container inside it, you will be able to bring most  leftovers back to your hotel with you when traveling, and cut down on waste.
 
And the additional benefit is reusable plastic containers work better than most disposable takeout containers which often end up leaking and ruining the food you are trying to bring home! 
 
10 Ways To Avoid Single-Use Plastics When Traveling

5) BRING YOUR OWN TOILETRIES 

A great way to cut down on single-use plastic consumption when traveling is to bring your own toiletries with you in reusable containers. I use to collect the mini shampoo and conditioner bottles and bring them home from all my trips and then one day I realized I had a whole drawer full of these that I never used! What a waste!
 
Most eco hotels have done away with disposable toiletries, but now whenever I am going to be staying at a hotel, I bring my own toiletries.  
 
10 Ways To Avoid Single-Use Plastics When Traveling

6) AVOID PLASTIC APPLICATOR TAMPONS

Ladies one easy way you can reduce your single-use plastic consumption in daily life and when traveling is to avoid using plastic applicator tampons. Using non-applicator tampons is best but if you must use an applicator use a cardboard applicator.

All tampons have a big environmental footprint – the average woman uses 11,000 – 16,000 tampons in her lifetime and these are being thrown into the garbage, filling up our landfills – but the plastic applicators don’t biodegrade. By simply switching to cardboard applicator tampons you can reduce a huge amount of non-biodegradable waste over the span of your life (source), and cut down on single-use plastic consumption

10 Ways To Avoid Single-Use Plastics When Traveling

7) TRY A STAYCATION 

Staycations and local travel are both great ways to travel more sustainably. Consider having a beach picnic, and bring food and drinks from home which will allow you not use any single-use plastics.
 
My daughter and I have one every week at our local beach and we have so much fun! Or try a road trip! Local travel helps you cut down on and waste and support your local economy. Consider visiting local markets, family­-run businesses, and mom and pop restaurants and boutiques.
 
10 Ways To Avoid Single-Use Plastics When Traveling

8) CARRY A REUSABLE SHOPPING BAG

Carrying a reusable shopping bag when traveling and in your daily life. I keep a reusable shopping bag in my backpack and I leave one in my car that way I always have one handy and can avoid using plastic shopping bags. And this bag can double as a beach bag!
 
10 Ways To Avoid Single-Use Plastics When Traveling

9) SHOP AT FARMER’S MARKETS

Shopping at a local farmer’s market is a great way to avoid single-use plastics when you are traveling and when you are at home. This helps support the local economy and it is a fun place to experience local culture, try local produce and meet people. We take our daughter to our local farmer’s market almost every week and she loves it!

10 Ways To Avoid Single-Use Plastics When Traveling

10) REUSE SINGLE-USE PLASTICS

If you end up having to use single-use plastic items when traveling you can at least reuse these. For instance if I forget my reusable water bottle I buy a plastic water bottle and then reuse it throughout my trip.

You can reuse ziplock bags – just wash them out and let them air dry as needed. You can also reuse plastic straws and plastic silverware. Remember in some places people would be overjoyed to have these items and would happily reuse them over and over again.

When we were in Malawi for our Safari & Charity Trip we drove through a very poor town. Children were running alongside our van screaming “plastic water bottles” because they wanted us to throw ours bottles out to them so they could reuse them.

I cried thinking about how wasteful we are in the western world and how much a single plastic bottle is worth to people who are less fortunate. We can all learn a lesson from this and stop taking our precious resources for granted. 

10 Ways To Avoid Single-Use Plastics When Traveling

WAYS TO AVOID SINGLE-USE PLASTICS WHEN TRAVELING 

This is by no means an extensive list but I hope it will inspire you to do your part to help reduce global single-use plastic consumption. It is easy to get discouraged by the amount of waste and pollution we all create but even making small changes, like the ones I have suggested in this article, will make a big difference. Thank you for caring!

We hope that this article has inspired you to try to travel more sustainably. If you have any questions or responsible travel tips to share please leave these in the comments below.

Want to share you own travel tips by guest writing for We Are Travel Girls? Go to our Contribute page for guidelines and to submit your article.

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Author

We Are Travel Girls Co-Founder Vanessa Rivers of GlitterandMud.com
Connect with Vanessa  Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | YouTube

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Comments

    • Tanara says

      Great suggestions Vanessa!
      For more information on plastics pollution, check out The 5 Gyre Institute whose mission is to empower action against the global health crisis of plastic pollution free science, education, and adventure.

      Reply

  2. Ann Dang @xplorationink says

    Thank you so much for sharing these tips! It’s so important to be as eco friendly as possible when traveling. A few other things I do when I travel is to try to book airlines that allow you to pay a little extra for your airline ticket to offset the carbon emissions from your flight. When I get to my destination, I always try to discover the place by foot or on a bike instead of taking a taxi or hiring drivers. It’s so much more fun and you get to see so much more when you’re not in a car zooming by everything. And I also try to eat vegan when I travel and cut down on meat. I take quick showers and never have the hotel replace my towels or linens during my stay to save water. We have to do our part to protect our planet and beautiful Mother Nature for future generations to enjoy :)

    Reply

    • We Are Travel Girls says

      Thank you Ann! Glad you liked the article. I agree it is so important to try to travel more sustainably and we can all do it with just a little effort! All these things you are doing are wonderful and mage a big difference! Thanks so much for sharing! X, Vanessa

      Reply

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