Ban the Bottle!
Ban the Bottle!
Changes start with small steps… Like we all know there is a huge problem in the World with waste. We simply produce too much of it and we are polluting the beautiful planet we are living on. Traveling is a great way of seeing more of the World, enjoying different kinds of food, see and experience different cultures and having a good time. But while you are traveling you probably also ‘produce’ a lot of garbage…. To some extent there is nothing to do about it, but one thing we might all try to change is this:
– Say NO to plastic bottles, straws and bags –
In many countries plastic is everywhere. You buy a few bananas at the market, you get a bag, you buy a can of Pepsi, you get a bag, you buy an icecream, you get a bag etc. etc. Another very obvious thing are the plastic bottles you get in many guesthouses, hostels and hotels. Every day they will put one or two bottles in your room and every day you drink them and throw them away. In theory for a hotel in a popular place with a 100% occupancy rate and with 30 rooms this means:
365 days a year x 30 rooms x 2 bottles = 21.900 bottles!
In places visited by many tourists this means hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of bottles each year…
Say no to this and let’s try to make a change together. Bringing your own bottle and ask for refilling possbilities might be a small step but if this becomes ‘common practise’ it might make a difference. Say no to plastic bags you don’t need (apples and bananas in one bag don’t start fighting each other…) and say no to plastic straws. If your accommodation doesn’t have a place to refill water, ask them to do so and inform them.
Fewer than half of the bottles bought in 2016 were collected for recycling and just 7% of those collected were turned into new bottles. Instead most plastic bottles produced end up in landfill or in the ocean according to an article in ‘The Guardian’ of the 28th of June 2017.
‘Between 5m and 13m tonnes of plastic leaks into the world’s oceans each year to be ingested by sea birds, fish and other organisms, and by 2050 the ocean will contain more plastic by weight than fish, according to research by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.’
Keep in mind that many bottles still end up in rivers, forests or simply lying somewhere at the side of the road. In some places recycling is not common or the distance to places where they do so is simply too far.
A very interesting read is this article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/a-million-a-minute-worlds-plastic-bottle-binge-as-dangerous-as-climate-change
Travelers can make a difference by showing alternatives and some (young) people might copy this as well.
Make a change and a small step to a cleaner world!
Share this message on your Facebook profile, your Facebook pages, in groups etc. etc. to reach as many people as possible! You might also translate this to other languages of course.