Enormous quantities of plastic waste are generated every year through the use of plastic water bottles – to give you an idea, we are talking about approximately 50 billion plastic bottles per year in the US alone. While in industrialized countries these are usually properly disposed of, or recycled to some extent, they can amount to a big problem in some tourism destinations, especially in developing countries that do not always have effective waste collection systems in place. Particularly in remote areas frequently visited by tourists, such as trekking trails in mountain areas, littering can turn into a serious problem, harming the environment and scaring off travelers in the long term.
Sometimes it does not require humans to distribute garbage to even the most remote places on earth – ocean currents can take along what we throw away without much thought.
Chris Jordan: Documentary about Midway Island in the North Pacific Ocean
According to some estimates, the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch has a size ranging anywhere from 700,000 square kilometers, corresponding roughly to the size of Texas, to more than 15,000,000 square kilometers. Similar patches of varying sizes exist in the Atlantic and Indian ocean. As much of the plastic decomposes only over long periods of time, the floating debris enters the food chain, poisoning marine wildlife and eventually humans also.
Fortunately, tour operators around the world, out of an increasing concern for the destinations they visit, have started to address this issue, providing either reusable bottles to their clients and/or refilling facilities during their trips.
Exodus Travels, a UK based tour operator, offers boiled water on treks such as the Inca Trail in Peru and on Kilimanjaro so that tour participants can conveniently fill up their reusable bottles during their trek.
Exodus Travels – Myth Busting: Safe Drinking Water
Chamäleon Reisen, a German tour operator based in Berlin, generally offers reusable bottles to all clients and assures that they can refill their bottles on many of their trips, for in example in Namibia, one of the main destinations the company offers.
Chamäleon Reisen: Stimmen-zur-Reise – Etosha – Namibia (in German)
In the Netherlands, Sawadee Reizen encourages customers to use the Dopper, a Sawadee-branded water bottle. In many destinations visited by Sawadee groups, tour guides and local providers cooperate by identifying opportunities to refill bottles with water.
Sawadee Reizen – International group tour – Trek the Classic Inca Trail
Explore Tibet is an incoming tour operator in Lhasa, Tibet. As part of their responsible tourism philosophy, the company has introduced the “No Plastic Project”, providing a tank of purified water to clients whenever possible so that they can refill their bottles. Each tank allows to save 34 plastic bottles – which benefits humans because they are not exposed to the chemical BPA; the environment because waste is reduced notably; and wild animals because they do not fall prey to toxic, even deadly, plastic garbage.
Explore Tibet – Responsible Travel
In the United States, Boundless Journeys with offices in Vermont also promotes the use of reusable water bottles and participates in the TAP – Travelers Against Plastic initiative.
Boundless Journeys – Blog – How we travel responsibly
Take a look at this short video by Travelers against Plastic:
Just remember: Independently of these and similar excellent initiatives, at any moment you can choose to significantly reduce plastic waste while traveling or at home, simply by utilizing a refillable water bottle and avoiding plastic bottles altogether. Small actions lead to big results!
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Excelent!!