Are You Ready For Summer?

Published

24 Jul 2019

Written by

Rossella Recupero

It’s summer! For many Europeans, this means long days by the sea, hikes in the mountains, campfire games, city sightseeing, or enjoying a stay-cation. But, no matter what your summer plans are, as you head out on your next adventure make sure you explore, not exploit!

As the summer holidays approach, we get busy planning our trips, buying tickets or packing our bags but how can we make the most of our vacations, keeping the excitement for a relaxing time while leaving aside wasteful practices?

To get ready for the holiday season, we put together 5 takeaways to make your summer eco-friendly and more zero waste!

1.The key to create less waste whilst travelling is to have your own carry-on things, so you won’t need single-use disposables. Put together a zero waste travel kit with reusable items, such as straws, cloth napkins, cutlery, containers…and remember to put everything in your backpack or in your favourite reusable bag!

2. Water is one of the most essential things when you are outside in the summer heat so, don’t forget to bring a refillable bottle with you. Especially when we travel by plane, it seems inevitable to use plastic bottles as you are not allowed to take water through the gate, but it is not! You can actually bring your own empty reusable bottle and fill it up just before taking off. In this way, you can bring your reusable bottle to your next trip without using unnecessary plastic.

3. Buy local and organic food products. As stated in the new ecotourism packages of the Global Footprint Network, by eating local you can improve each meal with a tasty footprint reduction of 5%. This can really add up over the course of a trip!

4. Look for small-scale, family-run and traditional housing accommodations that integrate well with local communities. According to a recent assessment of ecotourism packages, although large chains are often very efficient, small-scale hotels will reduce the accumulation footprint by nearly 48%.

5.Leave footprints only! Before you leave a beach, a camping site or a rest stop, remember to take a few minutes to pick up everything you used and all the litter you produced. Last but not least, don’t forget to properly recycle everything that can be recycled. It is easy to find excuses not to dispose waste in the right way but Zero Waste practices are working also in touristic places as proved by our case studies.Although a totally Zero Waste vacation may seem hard to achieve, every small action matters! There is no better occasion to remember our motto: “Zero Waste is a journey, not a destination!”