Eco Travelling: 8 Tips for Your Next Trip

Have you ever thought about how wasteful travelling can be? If you’ve never considered it before, then take my word for it, without realising, things add up and it can become disposable plastic central. Over the years, my partner and I have developed a range of habits that we follow in order to reduce our waste whilst travelling.

We’ve just taken our first flight after nearly two years of not going anywhere due to the pandemic which hit in March 2020. So I thought this would be a great opportunity to share our zero waste travel tips with you.

• Plan ahead.
  This is the most important tip I can give you. The next 7 tips rely on this one so don’t skip it. Take the time to think about how you can reduce any waste you might encounter on your journey and plan for an alternative.

• Take your own food, snacks and drink.
  We’ve been doing this for years due to being vegan and gluten free and finding it hard to find food anywhere anyway but this is great for avoiding buying packaged food and water bottles.
  Drinks: We both have a flask that we take everywhere with us. We fill it before we leave the house and top it up whilst we’re out and about. If we’re flying, we check beforehand with the airports that we’re travelling through whether they have water refill stations or not. (Sometimes they don’t and there’s not much else we can do but at least we tried). You can travel with a metal flask, it just needs to be empty when going through the baggage checks. Put it on the conveyor belt with the lid off. You can also take your own teabags and ask the flight attendant to refill your flask with water for free.
  Food: We always make our own lunch or dinner for the plane, usually a grain/potato/pasta salad with a tahini dressing as it’s both yummy and healthy and satisfying. We tend to use a repurposed plastic container like a 1kg peanut butter pot.
  Snacks: We also make sure to take our own snacks such as nuts, dried fruit and chocolate.

• Invest in a spork.
  This is one of the best zero waste investments we’ve made. It’s a cross between a fork and a spoon which covers us in all food cases when we travel. It is metal and folds in the middle to take up less space. I wish I could remember where we got them from to share with you because they’ve been incredible. We take them with us when we travel or even if we just go out for a long walk and take lunch. If you don’t have one then you can also take your own fork in order to avoid those plastic disposable cutlery sets.

Our homemade, natural deodorant

• Prepare your own toiletries.
  We make sure we have our own homemade, natural deodorant and crocheted hemp soap savers ready to take with us together with our own bamboo toothbrushes, soap and solid shampoo bars. We try to avoid having to buy new stuff that might not be sustainable or the type that we like. This is especially important when staying in a hotel or a BnB in order to avoid using those tiny travel bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and plastic shower puffs.
  

• Remember your reusable menstrual products.
  Of course this doesn’t apply to everyone but it is very important. Check when your next cycle might start and If needed/possible, pack your own reusable menstrual pads/cup to avoid ending up in a situation where you need to buy plastic ones.
  

• Carry a tote.
  Make sure to carry an extra tote bag in your hand luggage so that, if you want to buy anything at the airport, you have a bag ready to put your items in and you can say no to another bag.
  

• Take your own clear plastic bag for baggage check.
  If you are planning to take any liquids over 100ml then it’s a great idea to take your own clear plastic bag for going through baggage checks. I have a small toiletry bag that is completely clear that I’ve used for this purpose for years. This way I avoid collecting yet another plastic zip lock bag from the airport.
  

• Don’t stress.
  Finally, don’t stress out and have a good time! If any of the points above aren’t possible for you then don’t worry. Just know that you tried your best and maybe you can do one extra thing next time you travel. Like I said, my partner and I have built these habits up over time and it has become second nature to us.

I would love to know if you have any tips to add to these 8. If you’ve got something I’ve not mentioned, pop them in the comments below.