5 Tips That Can Help You Make Travel More Sustainable
According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourist arrivals grew by a remarkable 6% in 2018 to 1,322 million last year. This strong momentum is expected to continue this year. This may not come as a surprise since travel is more accessible than ever. Travellers have so much choice when it comes to airline carries and hotels etc.
However, with this travel can also lead to an increase in waste, as the tendency to grab a coffee on the go, buy take-out or use single-use cups and napkins on airplanes increases. So the question is, how do we ensure that travel can be maintained long-term without causing harm to our environment?
If you’re a traveler interested in eliminating single-use waste, here are some great products and tips to ease the transition into becoming a waste-free traveler in no time!
1 – Save Paper
Nowadays, it’s more possible than ever to travel 100% paperless. Instead of printing out boarding passes, add your digital boarding pass to your e-wallet and use the airline’s app for information instead of printing anything out. Flights aren’t the only modes of transportation that accept e-tickets. Most buses, trains, and metro lines accept downloaded tickets purchased from either the app or online.
2 – Bring a reusable water bottle
While traveling, make sure to bring one of our Cupanion reusable bottles with you to refill. Many airports around the world now offer water refill stations, and slowly more and more hotels are even adopting this practice! Remeber if you’re travelling by plane to pour out liquids before going through security. Plus, by bringing a reusable water bottle on your travels you are saving yourself a lot of money as well.
3 – Pack carry-on luggage only
Bringing only a carry-on is definitely the way to travel, especially if you want to travel zero waste. Only packign a carry one means less clothes, less packing, less stuff to weigh you down, but it also means less transit for your bag. By cutting out on all of the energy necessary to check your bag, you’ll be reducing your carbon footprint.
4 – Use reusable straws and napkins
You have to eat while traveling, yes. But that doesn’t mean you need to ditch the good behaviors that you’ve founded at home. Travel with a few reusable straws and reusable cloth napkins in order to avoid the single-use straws and napkins that often come with airport coffee runs, and the constant eating out that travel lends itself to.
5 – Offset your flight’s carbon emissions
The reality of modern life is that we all need to get from one place to another. But we can help offset the impact of air or road travel through companies like The Good Traveler. Just $2 offsets 1,000 miles! This money pays for projects that help restore climate balance like growing living things that capture carbon, producing clean wind energy, or capturing the methane from landfills.
Bonus tip: Check TSA regulations before you pack
Don’t bring restricted items through security that may end up in the trash bins!
We hope the above list gives you a few ideas and inspiration to form some sustainable travelling habits – let us know if you have any other traveling tips that we can add to this list by leaving a comment below or getting in touch with us here.
