One of the most disturbing trends we have witnessed while traveling around the world is the growing amount of plastic on our beaches, in our jungles, and every where in between. The focus on “our” is because this is ALL of our problem. There is no pointing fingers when it comes to plastic pollution. We also noticed it is the same rubbish: plastic bags, plastic water bottles, plastic straws, plastic wrappers etc.
What we wanted to do is put together a short blog post about some tips to decrease your plastic consumption while traveling, and even while at home. Some might be common sense, but hopefully we can help you out in other areas of your life. If you have any feedback for us, it would be great for you to leave us a comment.
Check out our tips below to help you reduce your plastic consumption and help to save our precious planet!
*Just a heads up, some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, we earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 🙂
Purchase a Reusable Water Bottle
Records show a million plastic water bottles are produced every minute. This is equivalent to 20,000 bottles every second. Most are made out of polyethylene and are highly recyclable. But because of the demand and consumption of plastic bottles, fewer than 10% are actually recycled, while the majority of them end up in our oceans or landfills.
Read more about it here!
What You Can Do
- Refill at your hotel/hostel – Many times, hotels/hostels will have potable water for guests to refill their water bottles. Some will charge a few bucks, but some are FREE!
- Find a Public Filtered Water Station – Find a non-profit that is providing free water in your area. In Arugam Bay, there is WLAB who provide free water to refill your bottle, and partners with a company in Colombo that makes clothes and shoes out of plastic water bottles.
- Refill out of the tap – Research the country you are going to and if you can, drink out of the tap. We drank the water out of the tap in quite a few countries and are alive and well to type this.
You can use the link below to purchase your reusable water bottle now!
Say “No” to Straws!
This is the easiest way for us to prevent plastic straws from entering our oceans and landing on our beaches. Straws take 2 minutes to make, 20 minutes to use, and 200 years to decompose in the environment. In the US alone, 500 million straws are used every day, which is said to be enough to wrap around the earth 2.5 times. That is a lot of plastic floating around in the ocean.
Read more about it here!
Check out the sea turtle with a straw stuck in his nose here!
What You Can Do
- Just say “NO!” – Do you really need a straw?
- Use metal/reusable/paper straw – If you need a straw for medical purposes, I get it, but please, please, please bring a reusable/metal one if you do.
You can purchase your sustainable straws now by clicking on the like below!
Bring Your Own Bag
We are ALL so used to using plastic bags to carry our stuff around, and upwards of 500 billion to 1 trillion are used each year. Plastic does not biodegrade, it breaks down into smaller pieces, and now out numbers plankton 6 to 1. Just remember, when you throw something “away”, there is “no away.” It has to go somewhere, which is one of the reasons why plastic is becoming ubiquitous in our environment.
Read more about it here!
What You Can Do
- Bring your own bag – Take either a canvas bag or a reusable bag when you make a trip to the store.
- Just carry it – Often, items are already in a package. For example: fruits and vegetables come in their very own little organic package!
*Purchase your reusable bag here!
*Just a heads up, some of the links on this page are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, we earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 🙂
Pin this for Later!
