Plastic Free July on the move: travelling plastic-free between challenges and good practices

With most countries lifting the travel ban issued because of the Covid-19 pandemic, during this Plastic Free July (PFJ), our team travelled to diverse geographies (Africa, Europe and Asia) for academic commitments and leisure. Given our previous experience on PFJ, we knew that going plastic-free is challenging. In this blog, we share our reflections on travelling plastic-free, the issues and the good practices we encountered along the way.

There are a few tips for travelling plastic-free that we usually adopt. For example, take a reusable water bottle and find a fountain, use a reusable mug for coffee or tea, carry water sterilising tablets for local water, cleaning products and possibly some camping cutlery or avoid takeaway and fast-food restaurants that commonly use disposable plastic cutlery. Also, the destination matters; if you know your way around, you may have a better chance of avoiding single-use plastics, e.g., by shopping at plastic-free shops and eating in plastic-free restaurants. However, most of us encounter diverse challenges when travelling last July.