Think about what you do in a day. You brush your teeth, get coffee in either a plastic cup for iced coffee or a paper cup for hot coffee, eat a lunch with plastic bags and plastic water bottles, and you may also go grocery shopping later and use plastic bags. All of those things, that are in your daily or weekly routine, are slowly killing our planet, and killing the beautiful places in our wonderful Earth. As a generation, I feel like we have a responsibility to take care of our planet so that the next generation of people to come into this world have somewhat of a healthy planet to live off of. Did you know, that the next generation of people might not get to experience a plastic free beach? To me, that is so scary. We have to do our part to save these beautiful places on our Earth, and these beautiful travel destinations, so that the next generation can enjoy it just as we did. This applies to travelling because, just imagine it, you have always wanted to go to a certain place that has immense culture and beautiful oceans. Imagine in like 10 years visiting that place, and finding plastic and waste in the water and on the sand. To the new generation of people that will seem normal. This is not right, and we need to do our part to stop it. It all starts with you. You, just one person, can make a huge difference to our planet.
Some ways to decrease how much waste that you produce is to:
- Switch to a bamboo toothbrush instead of a plastic one
- Switch from plastic straws to glass, metal, or bamboo straws
- Switch to re-usable grocery bags made out of cloth
- Wash your recycling. For example, soup cans and yogurt containers. Did you know that something (i.e. jar, can, cup) with even a little bit of food on it an not be recycled? It contaminates the rest of the recycling and will be thrown into the garbage.
Just by doing these 4 things, you are reducing the amount of waste and single use plastics that you are using, and all in all, saving our planet and all of the beautiful places in it.
Above I have attached a video that talks about how to cut down on single use plastic, how to cut down on plastic while travelling, and how you could even live completely plastic-free. This travel influencer, photographer and videographer, Sorelle Amore, has been living the plastic free lifestyle for 10 months now (since this video has been published she went from being plastic free for 6 months to 10 months, and still continues to live plastic free). Sorelle really shows how one person can make a difference, and talks about the ripple affect of how it starts with one person, and then will keep expanding. I hope that if you are ever thinking of travelling in the future that you look for waste and single use plastic alternatives to help keep these beautiful travel destinations beautiful for everyone in the future to enjoy!
- Taylor
Taylor's Blog 