Travel Tip 81

3 tips to reduce waste when traveling

I always had a metal straw with me in Brazil to avoid using plastic straws on the beach.

Is taking better care of the planet part of your New Year’s resolutions?

Are you good at reducing waste at home but aren’t always sure how to do it when traveling?

We travel to see something new, to relax, to enjoy the journey. People don’t travel so that they can focus on trash, but the environmental impact on tourist destinations around the world is forcing this conversation into mainstream media. It’s something I think about a lot when I travel and hope that more travelers take into consideration.

Get a pitcher of juice, or in this case chicha, to avoid buying plastic bottles of water in restaurants.

Why focus on waste?

Many tourist destinations have limited or no recycling.

Tourists coming from North America or Europe often live in cities with effective recycling and composting systems. Unfortunately, many tourist destinations in South America, and other less-developed parts of the world, don’t have effective recycling systems. Even if a city has separate bins for recyclables (like Cusco), travelers don’t know if those items actually are recycled. Some things may be reused, but recycling is limited or non-existent in many tourist destinations.

It’s easy to not realize how much waste we produce when traveling.

At home, most people take out the trash once or twice a week and know exactly how much waste they produce. When traveling, trash is often taken from your hotel room every day. If you’re in a hostel, doing your own cooking, your trash is often complied with the other people staying there, so it’s less obvious how much each of us produces.

Sea glass can be pretty, sometimes, but plastic bottles on the beach are never pretty.

So, what to do?

1. Bring your own reusable water bottle with a built-in filter.

The number of plastic bottles thrown away in Cusco alone is staggering. The problem is twofold. First, tap water isn’t drinkable. Locals boil it and drink endless herbal teas, fruit juices and drinks like chicha morada, made from purple corn. Most travelers don’t have access to a kitchen to boil water and aren’t used to drinking so much tea. Second, recycling plastic bottles is challenging even for developed countries. The lack of recycling facilities and of effective trash collections means that the bottles build up in many tourist destinations without a good way to get rid of them.

2. Bring your own toiletries in reusable packaging.

The plastic sachets or little bottles of shampoo, conditioner and liquid soap add up quickly in a place that has a lot of tourism. Even if I’m traveling for a month, I bring my toiletries with me in reusable bottles. I only use the single-serving size hotel toiletries as a last resort.

Try eating local foods that don’t require a lot of shipping, and if you’re eating from disposable plates at least make sure they’re compostable. This is locally grown nabo (turnip greens) and sangrecita (cooked cow’s blood), with homemade spicy chili sauce, in a compostable paper plate.

3. Be conscious of your food waste

Hotels and restaurants waste huge amounts of food and much of it ends up in landfills. I love trying local foods and supporting local families, so I try to eat at markets whenever possible. In local markets, you’re likely to find people who make a big pot of one thing and serve the same meal to everybody until they’re sold out. This produces much less waste than restaurants that have long menus of options and must stock ingredients for a variety of dishes. If you’re at a hostel with a shared kitchen or have a mini-kitchen in your hotel room, try doing some of your own cooking.

Can you be a zero-waste traveler?

Some travelers aspire to zero-waste during a trip, which is a great goal. However, for most people it’s impractical. Instead, we need to focus on decreasing the amount of waste we produce, from plastic bottles to food. When you consider the scale of tourism in places like Bangkok, Rio de Janeiro, and Cusco, even small changes, multiplied by millions of tourists, make a big difference. Read my tips for zero waste travel.

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