Taking these 10 eco-friendly travel products on all of your trips will help reduce the use of single-use plastics along your travels and the impact we have on the earth.
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Small changes can have big impacts! If you have ever traveled anywhere in the world, you will know how much of a problem trash is. We are constantly polluting the earth with over-consumption and non-biodegradable materials that will take more than a human lifetime to degrade. Meaning that the plastic containers your great grandmother threw away are still in existence today.
To get an idea of how long different materials take to degrade, here is a video made by @homeless.backpacker to bring awareness to this very serious issue we are all facing. Yet too little people care about.
We do not have to be perfect to make a difference. But we can become more conscious consumers in our day-to-day lives, as well as in our needs as travelers.
10 ECO-FRIENDLY TRAVEL PRODUCTS:
1. EPIC WATER FILTERS
This company is all about reducing the use of single-use plastics. They are coming up with innovative solutions to the reduce the plastic bottle pollution that we see all across the world today.
They realized that people do not trust the quality of their municipal water (and just-fully so!) and therefore buy more bottled water. Which in turn, pollutes the land, oceans and rivers.
So, Epic Water Filters have created amazing ranges of bottles with filters that purifies poor quality water by removing micro-plastics and contaminants.
No matter where you travel to, you can refill your bottle and always have access to clean drinking water. One filter replaces more than 550 plastic bottles that end up in landfills or in the ocean.
These Epic Water Filters are recyclable, long-lasting and an amazing alternative to single-use plastic bottles. A must-have amongst your eco-friendly travel products!
2. LIFE STRAW
Life Straw is such an easy and convenient water filter to carry along all of your travels and significantly reduces the need to buy bottled water.
This reusable stainless steel water filter drinking straw filters bacteria and micro-plastics from tap water. You can use one straw for over 1000 liters of water. Which means you will not be purchasing a single plastic bottle of water for a whole year!
You can easily put this straw in your most accessible day-to-day bag to always use it for clean drinking water no matter where you are.
3. resuable straw
Did you know that one stainless steel straw can replace over 500 plastic straws? That saves the earth over 200 years of decomposing a plastic straw. A straw that could potentially end up in the ocean and harm the wildlife.
You can replace plastic straws with reusable stainless steel straws that are super easy to carry in your bag for whenever you need it. These ones are BPA and chemical free for your health and the health of the earth!
4. SOLAR CHARGER
Solar power is an environmentally friendly alternative for power. Unlike power plants that produce greenhouse gases and pollution, solar power is a natural source of energy that we can now carry with us along all of our travels.
Not only is it convenient to have your own source of power at all times, especially if you are traveling long distances or to remote regions of the world, you are reducing your footprint as a traveler by using solar energy to charge your devices and batteries, turn on your lights and anything else you may need power for.
This solar charger is perfect for charging your devices. It is compact enough to travel with. Another option is this solar battery charger that is ideal for long road trips. It works as a waterproof charing kit for your vehicle so you always have power even in the middle of nowhere.
5. TOTE BAGS
We all know how devastating plastic bags are to the environment. These days, there is almost nowhere you can go without seeing a plastic bag laying on the ground. We hear endless stories of plastic bags suffocating wildlife and polluting the ocean.
I know from traveling to many developing countries that most supermarkets and local markets still use plastic bags and plastic packaging for everything without giving an eco-friendly alternative! And not just in developing countries but everywhere in the world! We can honestly make such a big difference to this problem if everyone just switched to the eco-friendly alternative: Reusable Tote Bags.
The ones I have shared here are made from organic cotton, free from dyes and chemicals. Tote bags can be washed and reused countless times. They are not only useful for shopping but for beach and adventure days too.
Tote bags are a must for your collection of eco-friendly travel products!
ECO-FRIENDLY SHOPPING TIP: When buying fresh produce, try your best to buy fruits and veggies that are not packaged in plastic. This is absolutely not necessary and there are always the loose alternatives that you can purchase instead. And when you buy your fresh produce, you do not need to put it into a plastic packet for the teller to weigh. You can weigh them without putting them into plastic and then carry them home in your tote bag. It is so unnecessary to have every different kind of fruit and vegetable in a separate packet that just ends up in landfills or polluting the earth.
6. Bamboo cutlery OR reusable cutlery
If you are on an adventurous travel adventure where restaurants are not always accessible and you are constantly eating on-the-go, having reusable cutlery is so helpful! And if you are a camping lover, then reusable cutlery is of course a must!
I do not know about you but I have been given plastic cutlery so many times along my travels. And if you have ever walked along the beach you always see plastic cutlery laying amongst the plastic straws and containers.
There are 2 options for reusable cutlery, it just depends on your preference. Bamboo Cutlery is reusable and biodegradable. Stainless Steel cutlery is also reusable and lasts longer than bamboo cutlery because of its durability.
7. REUSABLE TO-GO FOOD CONTAINERS
Besides plastic cutlery and straws, there are TONNES of plastic and Styrofoam containers from take-aways that are left laying all over the place. They are also so easily breakable so the micro-plastics not only end up in the ocean but in the stomachs of marine life and even in us humans! I watched a documentary a while ago (I honestly cannot for the life of me remember what it was), but studies were done on humans and they found that most of the people had a bank card sized amount of plastic inside their body from consuming micro-plastics through food and water.
We can all easily carry a travel-sized stainless steel reusable container with us everywhere we go for when we get take-aways, have left overs or want to pack an on-the-go lunch for our adventure days.
This can help reduce the amount of plastic containers that end up in landfills and polluting the natural world.
8. REUSABLE MUG OR FLASK
For all of my fellow coffee and tea lovers out there! I am so happy when I see a coffee shop asking their customers to bring their own mug or to pay extra for one of their biodegradable cups. This encourages people to be more sustainable in their daily habits and think about the impact they have on the environment.
Hydroflask has some amazing options for reusable stainless steel mugs and flasks that are perfect for the travel life. You can use them for hot and cold drinks and save the planet from thousands of plastic cups!
9. LINEN TRAVEL TOWEL
I recently learned that using a micro-fiber towel is not exactly the most eco-friendly option for a travel towel. Most micro-fiber towels are made from plastics which means micro-plastics from the towel end up in the ocean after washes. There are micro-fiber towels out there that are made from recycled plastics which is at least a step forward. But they are not easy to dispose of since they are still made from plastic.
A light-weight linen towel is a great alternative to this. They are quick-drying and most likely made from natural fabrics. You can also get a travel-sized linen towel so that it does not take up too much space in your bag.
10. DURABLE BACKPACK & TRAVEL BAG
It is better to spend a little extra money on good quality travel bags and backpacks that will last you a really long time than to have to buy a new bag after every few trips. Purchasing cheap, breakable travel products just creates more unnecessary trash and pollution in landfills. If we invest in quality products we reduce our travel footprint by using what we have for a much longer time. Plus, you save money because you do not have to keep replacing things that you have already bought.
Patagonia and Osprey are of the best sustainable and eco-friendly travel brands out there. They have a range of durable hiking backpacks, day bags and travel backpacks to choose from. Osprey also has a range of wheeled luggage that are durable for years and years of travel.
I hope that this list of eco-friendly travel products has helped you with a few more sustainable ideas of how we can better care for the environment even while we are traveling. Is there anything else that you would add to this list? I would love to hear your recommendations and thoughts in the comments. I am always excited to hear what my fellow eco-travelers use to better align with the values of sustainability and eco-travel.
