Zero waste travel

This blog has first appeared on TheTokyoChapter in 2018. The text below was updated in 2021.

I’ll be honest - it is really hard to be zero waste, even more so on holiday and especially with kids. Even MORE so since the pandemic hit and everything always needs to be cleaned, sanitized and double checked. There is always the delicate balance between convenience & doing what is best for our planet, and our health, as well as kids’ demands, time limits and what is available to you at the time. Hopefully I can show you a few easy things that you hadn’t thought of before. Let’s keep our fingers crossed we will soon be able to fly again wherever we want, whenever we want and use this zero waste hacks!

Preparations

These days it’s so easy to travel paperless (unless you travel with an infant; in my experience you’re not able to check in online with an infant). Your boarding pass in your Apple wallet and ready to go! We also offset out CO2 when booking the tickets. I’m not sure if all airlines do this, but ours offers the option.

Before we go, I always prepare everyone’s hand luggage. The kids (aged 4, 7 and 9) carry their own little backpack with a water bottle, hand towel and snacks in containers or Stasherbags. I buy snacks in large quantities, to avoid individual packaging, for example raisins or nuts per kilogram.

In my own bag, I carry coffee tumblers and a pouch with chopsticks, stainless steel straws and spoons as well as more snacks like homemade date balls or banana cake, lots of veggie sticks and cut fruit (my kids are notorious for not wanting to eat airplane food). Yes, I do feel like Mary Poppins and her bag of tricks, but to be honest with kids it’s impossible to travel light anyway!

With checked baggage, I make sure all the suitcases have their reusable name tag and if you like to have your suitcases plastic wrapped for safety, consider buying suitcase-sleeves - Tokyu hands sells super cute ones which also makes your suitcase stand out when they are spit out on the carousel. 

Airport

At the airport, after security, it is usually time for coffee and a pat on the back for getting everyone that far and not losing any member of the family. We use our tumblers for that or of course mugs if they have them at the coffee shop. If we get snacks, we choose plastic free and eat in, or ask the staff to give me the item directly in my hand or in a cotton produce bag I carry with me. It usually needs some persistence, but I usually manage to convince the barista. Unfortunately, these days a lot of snacks are prepackaged for hygiene reasons. You win some, you lose some, I guess.

We also fill up our water bottles , either at a drinking fountain or for example at Starbucks where they have a cold filtered water source next to the coffee machine (behind the counter, so you’ll have to ask where you pick up your coffee). Sending your kids to the barista to ask for water never fails to get the job done; no one can refuse cute kids with environmental ideals :-)

Flight

Here is where it gets a little trickier to really avoid all waste, as airplane meals always have plastic packaging and will be discarded anyway when not eaten. However, on the drinks you can limit your waste by drinking straight from the can for sodas, using your own water bottle and coffee tumbler or even using the same plastic cup twice if you order the same drink. Every little bit helps!

Food waste can be limited by offering untouched items to your neighbor - KLM suggested this on their meal packaging and I thought it was a great idea!

Lastly, and this sounds mean but I promise you my kids have survived this: I often refuse airline gifts. As we travel with the same airline a lot, or at least for the return flight, they often receive the same stuff and to be honest: no one really needs that many soft toy airplanes or pencil cases.

Hotel stay

During our stay in hotels, we use our own toiletries in refillable (mini) containers rather than the hotels’. As I’ve been working on reducing chemicals in our household (like SLA and parabens), most of the products I use are solid, like my deodorant, body butter and face & body soap. Being solid is easier to bring on small trips where you only have hand luggage. The only thing I still buy liquid and in plastic, is sunscreen. We use a mineral sunscreen called ‘Kiss my face’ which I buy in the largest container available. Mineral sunscreens don’t harm marine life and corals with the added advantage of no chemicals touching your own skin. We don’t need much sunscreen anyway actually, as we all wear our UV50 rash guards most of the time, so a bottle usually lasts all summer. If anyone has tried a great mineral sunscreen that doesn’t come in plastic - please let me know!

In hotels, we also opt for new towels and linen every other day rather than daily and we’re careful not to touch things that we don’t need to use like disposable slippers.

In some countries it is not safe to drink the tap water. Often hotels have their water filtered in house though and I usually write to the hotel beforehand to ask about this. If not, I find a drinkable water source to refill our bottles, like the big water dispenser in the gym or at the breakfast buffet (believe me - they’ll have it somewhere!) It takes a little planning ahead maybe, but once you’re used to it, it will be second nature to find clean water sources. Just make sure you only refill clean bottles (bring a small container with dishwashing soap with you on holiday) and not touch the spout of the water source with your bottle.

When checking out, check if it is a possibility to have the bill emailed to you or, if it really needs to be printed, at least refuse the envelope. 

A very special experience in Ogasawara: adopting and setting free sea turtles.

Holiday-ing!

During your stay in the beautiful place you chose for your vacation, there are plenty of little things you can do to minimize your impact on the environment. 

When choosing transportation, try to choose the one with the least impact, like a hybrid car, bikes or public transport. When on tours or in museums, consider if you really need the brochure, or could you just look it up online or take a picture of the information you need? 

When eating, try local and seasonal food (vegetarian or vegan to eliminate agricultural waste and save animal lives, if you’re into that), explore markets for unpackaged fruits and vegetables and eat in with reusables where possible. My bag always has a few bags in it (cotton or other re-usable bags) n case I come across produce or snacks I can buy plastic-free. Eat ice cream in a cone instead of a plastic cup, drink your espresso in a cup standing at the bar Italian style - you get my gist! 

When buying souvenirs, consider if you really need it / will appreciate it at home and if you do, choose plastic free, second hand (think French brocante markets) or artisanal & local made items. 

We always do some clean ups, whether at the beach or in the hotel surroundings. A 2 minute clean up really doesn’t take a lot of your time and leaves you and your kids with a feeling of accomplishment. We often take pictures of the clean ups we do and post them on the facebook pages of tourism boards, the hotel or the town. I also use instagram hashtags (#passonplastic #plasticfreejuly #saynotoplastic) to get exposure, trying to encourage others to do the same and at the same time raise awareness of plastic pollution. A visual is a powerful tool! Don’t hesitate to send suggestions to the hotel or place you’re staying at to become more environmentally friendly. The more they hear it from guests, the more they’ll have to think about it! I got some nets from the organization 4Ocean to use for clean ups; they are nets made from recycled plastic, which ensures you shake out the sand while you walk with them!

Traveling within our own prefecture in Japan during the pandemic.

Souvenirs

Some additional ideas for souvenirs to bring with you from Japan - it is so tempting to go to Daiso and load up on tacky plastic items but we all know that they don’t last! Again here I often choose second hand gifts, that I source from Temple antique markets (think sake cups, rice bowls, kokeshi dolls, woodblock prints). For new items, I love going to a local artisan shops and choosing china or traditional bamboo bento boxes. I always bring furoshiki to wrap my purchases in the shop to avoid plastic.  That said - furoshiki itself also make great gifts. In Fukushima some farmers affected by the tsunami and following disaster are now growing cotton (which is of course checked and made sure it is safe!) and I love buying these to support them (Lush sells them). 

Handmade items are also always a huge success with my family and friends, like Bikudesigns’ jewelry, Erica Ward’s illlustrations, Sorabento’s frabric gifts, or Ecohachi livings’ beeswax wraps made of Japanese cotton. 

Of course, Daiso does have some nice items that are not plastic that I stock up on to hand out to nieces and nephews, you just have to really look for them. Last month, I bought big coloring sheets of Tokyo and Kyoto, in a carton flat box. The perfect 100yen gift!

I truly hope some of the ideas mentioned above are inspiring you to think about what you can do more to leave behind less. I love that saying about how many ripples can cause a wave and I truly believe that! Every step you take towards using less plastic and creating less waste, will be appreciated by our children in the future! 

Have a great summer!!