Re-Usable Travel Essentials to Cut Down on Single-Use Plastics (and Elevate Your Travel Style!)
Cutting down on single use plastics while traveling doesn’t have to be a nuisance! Check out our easy solutions…
This year, the UN’s World Environment Day chose plastic pollution as the global environmental cause to rally around, and when you start to see the facts generated by their latest environmental report on plastics, it’s easy to see why.
Some of the more shocking takeaways:
Globally, we produce more than 400 million tons of plastic waste per year.
Less than 10% of all the plastics products generated are recycled.
98% of single-use plastic products (we’re talking plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic cutlery and straws, food wrappers, coffee stirrers, etc.) are produced using virgin fossil fuels. (ie. they’re not made from recycled plastics).
It’s estimated that there is between 75 and 199 million tons of plastic floating in our oceans, and that several hundred thousand tons of that is micro-plastics.
How do most plastics make their way into the ocean? Rivers. It’s estimated that 1,000 of the world’s rivers account for 80% of the plastic pollution ending up in the ocean. Small urban rivers end up being the biggest polluters.
Remember in math class how your teacher blew your mind pointing out that even if you keep dividing a number, it will never reach zero? This is the same with plastic waste. Plastics don’t go away, they just break down into smaller and smaller particles. Eventually these particles are found to accumulate in us.
Yes, us. Humans. We inhale them, absorb them, and they accumulate in our organs. Microplastics have been found in human lung, liver, kidney and spleen tissue. Annnnd…. No one really knows the long-term effects of this accumulation yet.
So… What do we do with this information?
I like to take all of this environmental data I come across and run it through the filter of, “How does this intersect with travel? What does this mean for me? For my clients? How do we take this information and turn it into positive action?”
Hopefully you’ll find the following video informative and somewhat entertaining… While attempting to edit it I had to come to terms with the fact that there’s only so long I can keep my kookiness contained so… Don’t expect any professional influencer content here folks. LOL.
One last reflection that I think is worth noting- A lot of the products I’ve talked about do have SOME sort of plastic element to them. But when you think about how long plastics take to degrade (20 for your average plastic bag; 200 years for a plastic straw; 450 years for a plastic water bottle; 500 years for something like a toothbrush or razor!), then plastics are really amazing when it comes to creating a product that lasts. The problem is when we use plastic for something that is intended to be thrown away after one or just a few uses. The more we can do away with those products -the straws and baggies and waterbottles- the better off we’ll all be. :)
Anywho…
I hope this post leaves with you some good ideas for your next trip, and if you have some tips to share of your own, let me know!
Ciao, Bellas!
-H