Awareness of the excessive and unconscious abuse of single-use plastic has been one of the milestones of 2018. We have seen marine animals dead due to the accumulation of plastics in their stomachs, NGOs such as Canarias Libre de Plásticos that fight against the presence of plastics and microplastics on our coasts, and we have been rejoiced with the ban on this type of plastics planned for 2021 throughout the European Union (with or without the United Kingdom, we will see).
But 2021 seems like too long a time for a problem that grows every day and that will continue to affect us centuries after its eradication, because the plastics already present in nature are not going to disappear so quickly.
Therefore, we are going to give you a series of recommendations provided by this NGO to reduce the amount of plastic used during our holidays. They are very simple objects that will help us to avoid leaving a trace of waste that is not very recyclable.
- Refillable bottle. Have you ever had to leave a perfectly good bottle of water on the airport security check? We have a solution: take your own refillable bottle (empty). You will be able to fill it up anywhere, and enjoy some very hydrated holidays. You have glass, plastic or aluminum options. We recommend the last, it does not break easily and does not weight much either. Some also include filters.
- Fabric bags. Take one or several extra empty fabric bags in your luggage. You will need them for plenty of things: for the beach, shopping, taking extra sneakers or boots on your car… The important part is you won’t need to take that plastic bag they offer you on the supermarket.
- Reusable straw. If you love taking your freshly pressed juice with straw or you have kids addicted to it, the answer is easy: reusable versions. Take them on your bag and remember, ask the water not to bring any when ordering.
- Reusable plastic cutlery. Have you ever seen and stored a useless cutlery set on our home food delivery? We now it is the moment to take them out of the dark. Carry one set per person and kindly ask the Deli employee to keep theirs.
Some of these steps may seem exaggerated, but every time you use your cutlery, your straw, your bottle and your bags you will be helping to clean our beaches. And if you also sign up for some beach cleaning of «Canarias Libre de Plásticos», then you are contributing twice as much!