Over the last year, I've become more aware of the waste I create in my daily life, and am trying to decrease it. We began composting at our house, I switched to using a bamboo toothbrush, I've made a few reusable produce bags, we've purchased a set of wool dryer balls to replace dryer sheets and cut down drying times (I also line dry a majority of my clothes, but when it comes to towels and such the dryer just works better!), and we've also started using a Cora Ball to catch plastic microfibers in the wash, among other things. So, when it came to setting off for our next trip, I really wanted to apply my new low-waste mentality to travel. You might ask, why travel at all? Airplanes are a significant source of carbon dioxide emissions. And you would be right. But I don't think it is practical, or healthy for the global community, for us to stay isolated in our local communities. Travel is so important to understanding and appreciating other cultures, that I think we should all do it when we are privileged with the means to do so. Besides, the planes are going to fly whether I am on them or not. So, in my opinion, I think it is worthwhile enough to travel, while reducing my waste production where I can along the way.
The first area of waste reduction comes in packing. Planes use more fuel the heavier they are; so packing light can help decrease (or at least not increase) the carbon dioxide emissions of the plane. I am also cheap and refuse to pay for checked luggage. I've had about 10 years of practice fitting two weeks worth of stuff into a carry-on sized suitcase. (Actually, my first experience involved packing for 32 days in a carry-on!) It is totally doable. I have three tips for packing this way. First, pick a color scheme. If you have a specific color palette, then you can mix and match accessories. Below you can see the clothes that I brought on our trip. To be fair, we were only gone a week this time, so it was a bit easier! But, I was able to pack only two sweaters and three hats and scarves to mix and match with different outfits over seven days. When we are gone for longer periods of time, I pack in a way that I can re-wear dresses with different accessories and mix tops with different bottoms, etc. to create different looks.
My second tip is packing cubes! These things are amazing. They contain everything in a small space, saving room, and make getting in and out of your suitcase a breeze. We often move around to different cities when we travel and packing cubes make it so easy to pack up and move every couple days. I adore this leopard print set that was given to me by my friend Claire years ago. The brand is eBags, but you can find packing cubes all over.
And my third tip is roll, don't fold! I didn't believe that this packing method really saved space until I tried it. It is a game-changer! Here I've managed to get three dresses, two pairs of leggings, and two T-shirts into this small packing cube. I then layered two hats and a scarf on top. I think my record for this size cube is seven dresses and two T-shirts.
The second area I focused on was waste reduction in our food consumption. This is one of the main areas I have been trying to reduce waste in my daily life, and I really wanted to translate that to traveling. Before taking off, I put together a low-waste travel kit for us.
So far, we have traveled to places with tap water that is safe to drink. So we pack reusable water bottles. These bottles are plastic, but we have been using them for years, which is better than buying multiple single use bottles each trip. They do have a carbon filter that has to be replaced each time we travel so there is some waste produced. When these bottles have reached the end of their useful life, then I would like to find an even more environmentally friendly alternative. This was the first trip on which I was really focused on not using plastic drinking cups on the plane, in addition to while we were at our final destination. On shorter flights (~2 hours) we just declined the food and beverage service, but on the longer flights I got up the courage to ask the flight attendants if they could just fill up our reusable bottles with water. We found them to be very receptive to the idea! Particularly on the long-haul flights crossing the Atlantic where the planes have water systems running in their kitchenette areas where they could easily fill the bottles, rather than using up water from the plastic bottles on their beverage carts. (I know some people have concerns with bacteria in these systems, but I ALWAYS drink the coffee on flights and I've never had any issues.)
Speaking of coffee, we also purchased a couple 12oz. KeepCups for ourselves. I love how KeepCups look and I've been wanting to get one for awhile, particularly the glass and cork variation because it uses less plastic. I had two concerns specifically about using these for travel, though. One, I wanted to make sure the lid had a really good seal. I've had other reusable mugs in the past and found that the lids often leaked or came off too easily. I didn't want to worry about that on a turbulent plane. We read a number of reviews, and nothing came up about the seal on the lid. So we figured that was a good sign. My second concern was about the weight of the glass version. If they were heavy, it would be all too easy to justify not carrying them around. But, a local coffee shop near our house was carrying the 8oz. versions and I felt how light they actually are. We took the plunge and ordered two of the 12oz. cups and we love them! They worked so well. They are light and the lid has a good seal. Again we found the flight attendants to be perfectly willing to fill up our reusable cups with coffee, and on the long flights with a second coffee service they remembered that we were using reusable cups and offered to fill them before we even had to ask.
We also tried to reduce waste in the snacks we ate. I don't like purchasing snacks at the airport or on the plane anyway. I usually bring my own. But this time we went to the bulk section of our local grocery store and filled up our reusable silicone Stasher bags. I love these bags, which were given to me this past Christmas by my friend Vicky and my mom. They are so much more durable than plastic bags and they held up perfectly throughout the whole trip. The closure at the top works really well and kept our snacks from getting stale. Stasher bags are also dishwasher safe on the top rack, so they're super easy to clean!
We also packed our To-Go Ware bamboo utensil sets. For long-haul flights (we had one 10-hour and one 8-hour flight) I find it hard to refuse the meals. Airplane meals are generally over-packaged in plastic. However, given space limitations (we're already using up one carry-on apiece with our suitcases) I find it difficult to pack food that is more substantial than just snacks. Then there are also security concerns (no packing anything liquid or gel that isn't in your TSA approved bag) and how to keep temperature-sensitive food cold or hot. So we decided that we would eat the meals provided on our transatlantic flights, but would refuse the plastic utensils. Happily, this was also met with positivity from all of the flight attendants we encountered.
We also packed reusable napkins, but found that to be the one area where we kept forgetting to use them (they were packed away under the seat) and kept forgetting to refuse the paper napkins that the flight attendants automatically hand out with basically everything. That will be one area to improve upon next time!
Overall, we did pretty well sticking to our plan to reduce waste while on planes. But we did slip up a couple times at our destination. The first day we opted not to carry our reusable water bottles (it gets really heavy with two in my purse!), but we were out and about longer than we'd thought and ended up breaking down and purchasing single-use plastic bottles for the sake of hydration. We dined-in for most meals, rather than taking-out in single-use containers, particularly with morning coffee since most pastelarias we encountered had the option of ceramic mugs. However, one morning we set off before our local pastelaria was open and we gave in and purchased drinks from a Starbucks at the train station. We weren't carrying our KeepCups with us. With two water bottles already in my purse, it was just too heavy and there was no room for them. My goal will be to figure that out for our next trip. I am always concerned about carrying too much baggage with us as we walk around and clearly being pegged as a tourist in high-pickpocket areas. But I also want to find a way to be lest wasteful during all parts of our travels.
Please note: this post is not sponsored by any of the brands mentioned. These are just the products that I use and love!
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