Tuesday, Three Times I Failed To Be A Sustainable Traveller On My Recent Holiday

Everyone and their grandma have jumped on the sustainable travel bandwagon – it has become more accessible than ever, with lots of people preaching on the topic and telling you how to do it! During my trip to Georgia last week I had to come face to face with the reality. I mean, sure I supported the locals by staying in guest houses, taking taxi instead of Uber and eating local. But I also failed at really simple things…


Water bottles

Caring around my refillable Dopper bottle has become second nature. Yet, I barely refilled it in Georgia. It’s a shame as almost every park and monastery has a drinking fountain, but their set up made it impossible to refill a bottle and at other times yours truly was craving cold refrigerated water that only plastic bottles could provide. Should I feel ok that sometimes I did refill those plastic bottles? No? I’ll go stand in the corner and have a think.

Throwaway sandals 👡
This happened before I left actually, but since I had to face the consequences in Georgia I might as well add it. So, one of my 2018 goals is to make sure 80% of the clothes/shoes/accessories I buy are produced ethically and not by children’s hands. This requires more research and planning, something I hadn’t done for summer spring shoes. So when it got hot a while ago I ran to the high street and grabbed the first pair of sandals that fit. And I paid for it in Georgia as on day 2 and 35K steps later they were completely worn out.

Plastic bags ♻️

In addition to buying plastic bottles, I also got given a fair amount of plastic bags with almost everything I bought. My logic said it was ok as I could use them to store my trash, but now I’ve added those to landfill as well. Like everyone I cried when I watched the tragic Planet Earth episode, but it obviously didn’t guilt me enough, so I need to save the turtle photo on my phone so I can’t forget I must say ‘No to plastic.’

What have been your sustainable travel struggles?

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