This weekend has been cold—really cold—so no better time to go away somewhere hot, right? While that isn’t practical for me right now, the dead months of winter are a common time for vacations to the tropics for many others. What’s the ideal vacation for you? Backpacking across Europe? Relaxing on a beach? Eating all the good food on a cruise or at a resort? Whatever your preferred vacation may be, one thing is for sure: vacations can be very unsustainable and wasteful.
I used to love going on cruises. I was fortunate enough to travel a lot with my parents as a child, and during my teen years I went on a few cruises. I remember my last cruise, back in grade 12, wasn’t anywhere as enjoyable as the first few, one of the main reasons being that I recognized how much waste was actually being accumulated on the boat. I went on my first cruise when I was thirteen, a time when I didn’t really understand the environmental issues facing our world and how significant they are. I was a completely different person when I went on my last cruise at age seventeen. I dreaded putting away my dishes after eating in the buffet; I was taught to clean my plate, so putting my empty dishes into the pile of dishes still filled with food made my heart hurt. Untouched pieces of bread, whole bowls of soup, bananas that hadn’t been peeled (seriously, what the heck?!), perfectly good foods, now being sent to the trash. This wasn’t the only waste I saw on that last trip: people swarmed the pool bars to get fancy drinks with plastic straws all day, every day; hundreds of plastic water bottles were bought at the port gates every day; towels in your suites would be replaced with fresh ones, even if you hadn’t used them.
Cruises aren’t the only wasteful vacationing spot. They’re basically just floating resorts, so all this waste and more would be accumulated on any all-inclusive vacation spot. Airplanes are incredibly wasteful, too, using plastic cups for every passenger, every flight, offering meals in plastic-wrapped Styrofoam containers, using individually wrapped hand towels and hand sanitizer packets. We buy 100mL plastic containers for our shampoo, makeup remover and other liquids that weren’t not allowed to bring on planes in large quantities. Don’t even get me started on how unsustainable air travel is…let’s just say it’s one of the biggest GHG emitters in the world.
All that being said, it’s not like we’re just going to stop taking vacations, right? Trust me, I like vacations just as much as the next person. People need to travel by plane for business, as well, and to visit family. However, there are ways to make travelling and vacationing more sustainable. How do you do that? Keep reading for a five simple tips for making your next vacation or travel experience more sustainable! And in case you’re wondering, all of the photos in this post are from my own adventures over the years. If you’re wondering where specifically some of these places are, unfortunately we went so many places that I just can’t remember them all!
1. Bring a reusable water bottle
One of the best ways to reduce your waste while travelling is to bring a reusable beverage container. I can’t remember a time where I didn’t go on a vacation or travelling somewhere without bringing water with me, can you? In the last few years I’ve switched from bringing plastic bottles with me to reusable ones. They’re light so they won’t weigh you down while hiking or sightseeing and can keep your drinks cool if you get an insulated one. If you’re travelling to a place where drinking tap water is not recommended, you can get a bottle with a built-in filter to save yourself from using plastic bottles. You also save money on vacation because we all know that tourist attractions charge five dollars for one water bottle. One small investment in a reusable bottle can save you a lot of money in the long run, perhaps even enough to go on another vacation (okay I know this is a stretch, but maybe you buy a lot of water bottles…). Save the planet while saving your cash!
2. Only fill your plate with what you will eat
When you’re staying on an all-inclusive resort or cruise ship, there’s just so. much. good. FOOD. You want to try everything because 1) it’s free (technically you already paid but you know what I mean), 2) it’s unlimited and 3) there’s a lot of foods you’ve never tried before or don’t eat too often. You load up your plate with all the good things, get ready to eat it all, then...you get full. Fast. Or you change your mind and don’t want something you grabbed. Or something doesn’t taste as good as you thought, so after one bite into the heaping mound of food you turn your nose up at it. At the end of your meal you’re dumping your plate that is still half (maybe in completely) full of food into the garbage – I’ve never been on a cruise with composting, so it does just go to landfill.
The best way to avoid food waste on vacation is to take only what you know you will eat. Especially when it’s all inclusive, nothing is stopping you from going up to get another plate after you finish your first if you are still hungry. But if you get too much food in the first round you’ll probably be dumping a good amount of it after. When loading up your plate, try to be realistic: do you normally eat a mountain of food in one go? You know your body. Maybe it’s not a great idea to grab five slices of pizza on top of fries, pasta, salad, dessert and whatever else you may take. You could always start with one or two slices, then if you’re still wanting more after you can go up for seconds. Stop food waste while still leaving the buffet with a happy tummy!
3. Ask for no straw
No beach vacation can be complete without a Piña colada in hand, am I right? If coconut isn’t your thing, maybe daiquiris are your thing. If not either of those, I’m sure that there’s a drink that is your go-to while on vacation. I’m also sure that most of those drinks come with a plastic straw while you order them. I don’t think I have to explain the detrimental effects of plastic straws yet again on this blog (but if you would like a refresher, check out this postor this one), so it shouldn’t be a surprise that I am saying to ask for your drink without a straw. It still tastes the same, and you’ll be saving some turtles while you’re enjoying your drink. Alternatively you could bring your own reusable straw, which you can now purchase just about anywhere (Walmart, Bulk Barn, Amazon, literally anywhere). If you refuse to drink your Piña colada without a straw, there’s no harm in bringing your own to make your drink extra fancy.
4. Pack your own snacks
Snacks are essential on any trip. Especially road trips. In my experience, most of my money on trips is spent on food. That’s why packing your own snacks can save money and the environment!
Bringing snacks is great for backpacking or touring. You can pack homemade trail mix, cookies or granola bars, a piece of fruit, or a peanut butter sandwich. Simple to make, easy to carry, and super cheap. At the same time, you’ll save your money so you don’t have to spend ten bucks on a sandwich from a dingy gas station, and if you wrap your food in a reusable snack wrap or container than you’ll also be snacking zero-waste style. I always have my own snacks on me (my friends judge me because I always have at least three different snacks in my bag all times) so that if I’m out somewhere and get hungry I don’t have to waste money to satisfy my hunger.
Bringing your own food also ensures that you can eat something you like. Sometimes when you’re in a foreign place you may not have access to familiar foods, so having something you already know that you like is the right way to go.
5. Experience the local life
When I’m on vacation I don’t like visiting the typical, “hot” sites. The Colosseum, the CN Tower, white sand beaches – they’re fine to see once just to experience it I suppose, but I would much rather explore small, local spots that aren’t swarmed by tourists. I never liked answering people that asked me where I went on a cruise because I never felt like I really went to each of the places the boat stopped at. This is because the boat doesn’t dock in a little town (not the big boats, at least), they stop at highly commercialized, built up ports with jewelry shops, Starbucks, Pandora, souvenir shops and everything else that we could find back home. Why pay thousands of dollars on a vacation to just see the same things that you have at home? I don’t need a fridge magnet with a seashell on it. I don’t need a new pair of sunglasses or sandals made in China, or a T-shirt with a seagull on it stating that I’ve been to X place. Cruises are usually only stopped at each port for a few hours, so you often can’t even go anywhere else.
When I go on vacation, I try to escape the crowds of people in white sneakers, with big DSLR cameras strung around their necks. I try to blend in with the locals. If I’m going somewhere it’s because I want to experience the culture, to see what sets this place apart from how I live my own life. I don’t want to go shopping for clothes or souvenirs and I don’t want to eat at McDonald’s. I want to support the local crafters and try their ethnic food. I want to understand and appreciate what makes them a culture. Call me a hipster if you want, but I truly can’t find the logic in travelling if you’re not going to experience something new. By doing so you’re saving money on all the cheap souvenirs you’re not buying, preventing the destination T-shirts you’ll never actually wear from ending up in a landfill somewhere, and you’ll be stimulating the local economy to keep small communities thriving.
I hope that you find some of these tips useful and think about them when planning your next vacation or travel session. Remember, every single one of us can make one small change to our lives that can create a huge impact on the planet. One person, for instance, needs at least 4 plastic water bottle’s worth of water every day; multiply that by a two week long vacation, and that’s 28 water bottles you are stopping from entering our oceans if you choose to carry one reusable water bottle instead. Small actions = big results. I challenge you to try at least one of these tips next time you travel and share your experience in the comments!
I hope that you all have a great week ahead, and stay tuned for more sustainability tips, tricks and inspiration. As always, thank you for reading!
Until next time!
1 comment
Hi Jenna, a friend forwarded your blog on compostable straws. We have just successfully convinced our 288-unit condo board to start food waste diversion. I wanted to re-read that blog, or more specifically, share the poster of organic cups, cutlery, straws after 60 days. The post has been removed. Is there any way you can send me the poster, or direct me to it? Thanks for your help! I have read all your posts from the last few months. Really impressive! And inspiring!