Zero waste while travelling: our top tips
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The first week of September is Zero Waste Week. Going zero waste is not an easy task, but there is a lot that we can do to reduce our waste. And when we go travelling we can keep waste to a minimum too. Here are some tips to reduce waste before and during travelling...
Before you go away:
- Turn off your non-essential electrical items and unplug them. Leaving electronics plugged in and on, uses background electricity that you just don’t need to be used while you are away
- Use up all your fresh food, or give it away to someone who can use it. You can give away unwanted fresh food in good condition via sites like Olio.
- Rather than buying something new that may only get used on your trip, consider shopping for preloved items to take with you on your travels. Or borrow something you may need for a particular trip. For example, specialist gear for trekking and so on.
At the airport
- Take a reusable water bottle and / or coffee mug with you. You aren’t allowed to take liquids through security, but you can empty them out before you go through. And then once you get to the other side, you will find water fountains. You can also ask for your reusable mug to be filled up.
- Either take food with you in reusable containers (only do this if you want the containers with you on the trip), or only buy food from restaurants and cafes that provide food with reusable crockery and cutlery.
On your trip
- Look for food waste and recycling points and use them where possible.
- If you don’t feel safe drinking local drinking water, or there are no safe water stations to fill up a reusable water bottle from, buy the biggest bottle of water you can find and decant it into yours, and your families/ travel companions reusable water bottles. This means fewer water bottles need to be disposed of
- Take reusable shopping bags with you when you go shopping and refuse plastic bags.
- If you know you won’t eat part of a meal that you are going to order in a restaurant, ask for the meal without that part of it, so that it doesn’t go to waste. Or if you can never make it through a full plate, consider sharing a meal or having smaller dishes.
These are just a few of the things that you can do to reduce waste related to travelling. Have you tried any of these things? Do you have any other zero waste travelling tips? For more tips on going zero waste head over to Zero Waste Week.
