How to reduce plastic consumption while traveling Don’t gulp your planet! For us, plastic bottles and cups are cheap but nature has to pay a high price. If you don’t want to add to the ocean’s plastic soup, here’s what you can do. Refillable water bottle - has to become your best companion, whether you travel to the nearest park in your hometown or to the Amazon jungle. Of course, you might make your way to regions where clean drinking water is not easily accessible. In this case, a smart move would be to invest in a water bottle with a filter. Hot drinks - throw a reusable cup in your bag and enjoy your coffee-to-go whenever you wish. There are a few different alternatives to pick from. Like a bamboo fiber cup, a thermos flask or a glass coffee cup. Keep your eyes open as The Bamboovement will soon launch a new coffee cup you sure don’t want to miss! Plastic is not yum. Eating on the hoof and traveling go hand-in-hand, and entail quite some inconvenience. How do you reduce waste if you still want to fuel yourself for new adventures? A single reusable food container and cutlery set will solve a handful of problems. Simply ask the local street vendors to pour your drink into your reusable cup and to put your food into your own food container. On the plane - a home-made lunch box will “save” two birds: you from consuming that suspicious lukewarm substance they serve onboard and the planet from choking with another single-use plastic tableware. On the street - famous Asian street food, Italian gelato or Dutch stroopwafels. Avoid single-use plastic plates, wraps, and forks, and munch on your favorite street food without guilt. Anytime - prepare a container with your favorite snacks before you leave home or your hotel/hostel, and sudden bouts of hunger won’t catch you off guard. The result - you won’t let you get hAngry and seek salvation in the nearest fast food store. Keep it tidy What seems to dissolve and disappear in the shower drain actually leaves a huge footprint. To keep the planet as clean as yourself, use cosmetic products of organic origin and avoid flushing contaminative chemicals into the environment. Even better would be to choose soap bar over shower gel, deodorant bar over aerosol, solid shampoo over the liquid one. Bonus – bars are much lighter and last longer than their liquid alternatives. Check out our stock of Finnish hand-made cosmetic bars. The same goes for toothbrushes, combs and other items that your good looking self needs. Organic materials like bamboo are not only eco-friendly but also healthier for you. And generally, doesn’t bamboo have a better feel to it than those out-dated plastic products? Do shopaholics have issues? Avoid plastic bags. A thin folded shopper bag doesn’t take much room in your luggage but saves you from using one nondurable plastic bag after another whenever you shop. Give preference to local products. Here are a few reasons. Firstly, importing goods from across the world leaves a much larger carbon footprint than transporting from the local farm to the market. Secondly, products at markets usually come without unnecessary layers of packaging. And thirdly, you didn’t travel that far to buy all the same things as you would at home, right?! Develop a minimalist mindset. Generally speaking, shop less. Think twice before an impulse takes over. Will you really starve without that pack of cookies? Do you really “have nothing to dress tonight”? Is that souvenir really necessary to make the trip memorable? The less you buy now, the less will end up in landfills later on.
