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Crossing land borders in South East Asia has been unusually stressful this trip thanks to the big bag of  white powder I am carrying in my rucksack. No we are not funding our trip by an ill advised foray into drug smuggling but trying to back pack plastic-free. Which means no plastic toothpaste tubes. So we have brought a sack of home-made tooth powder with us. While carrying tightly wrapped packs of dentifrice may be innocent, it sure doesn’t look it. I dread the day I have to explain to some grim-faced custom official. The response I fear  involves rubber gloves.

So why do it?

Well we are visiting wild and remote places, the kind of places you have to walk to. Places with no garbage collection service and your rubbish goes onto the village dump just out of town. A system that has been in place forever and that used to work.plastic pollurion mabul featured

But in the old days of course most trash was biodegradable, animals ate some of  it, the rest would compost down, it was safe to burn and the ashes could be used as fertilizer. The system was not perfect, but people have lived like this for centuries and maintained  sustainable landscapes. The introduction of plastic rubbish has changed everything. Because most plastics  do not biodegrade plastic lasts for a long time  possibly for ever. It cannot be eaten, does not rot or compost down and it is difficult to burn.

You can see some photos of plastic pollution in remote tourist places on our Facebook page Planet Trash 

When it does eventually break up or degrade, it only breaks down into smaller pieces of plastic. It cannot be left in the landscape as before. Basically every bit of plastic rubbish has to be collected up and specially disposed of either by being  buried in landfill, incinerated or recycled.

Whatever your method of plastic disposal, it requires amongst other things a decent infrastructure, some roads, machinery, power, vehicles and a lot of cash. You don’t get that the places we go. So  now the ditches alongside the rice paddies are choked with plastic crisp bags, the beaches littered with plastic water bottles and  plastic bags cover huge swathes of land. Many communities can only deal with their plastic waste by burning it. Evil smelling bonfires of smoldering plastic trash are now as much a part of the backpacker experience as tinkling temple bells. These filthy fires add to air pollution and global warming and worse; certain types of plastic, when burnt release release extremely toxic carcinogens.

Bali rubbish featuredAnimals that forage amongst the rubbish for food will often accidentally eat plastic. Which is a poor diet and sometimes a fatal one. Here are a few facts;

If plastic trash is not dumped, rubbish is often thrown into rivers to be carried off down to the sea.   Encyclopedia Brittanica states, “it has been estimated that 6.4 million tons of debris end up in the world’s oceans every year and that some 60 to 80 percent of that debris, or 3.8 to 5 million tons, is improperly discarded plastic litter “. In our years of travelling we have seen plastic pollution increase massively and we  don’t want to add to that pile of everlasting, carcinogenic, potentially lethal trash. That is why we travel plastic-less.

Here’s how.

 

Top Tips

DON’T Buy bottled water.You may not need to – check out this site that tells you if the water is safe to drink

If it isn’t use a Steripen  to purify  water.   . This fantastic bit of kit works by UV light, weighs next to nothing, is tiny and purifies water in 90 seconds…. if you bought only one thing. Of course you will also  need a refillable water bottle

We shop at local markets and bakeries for unpacked tasty plastic free snacks and we  take our own bags to put them in – including a reusable carrier bag and produce bags.

Because so much street food comes in disposable plastic we take

  • tin cup for drinks
  • reusable tin tiffin tin   for street food
  • folding chop sticks to eat it with
  • folding cutlery. ditto
    WashbagWe don’t use plastic packed toiletries provided. Instead we use our own including;

    • a solid shampoo. It cuts down on more bottles.  Lush (www.lush.com ) do some. When that runs out we use bar soap – it works fine..
    • I make my own sunblock &  self tan.
    • And of course the dodgy looking toothpowder.
    • You can find the whole range of plastic free beauty products here

    More

    Travel – how we travel the world plastic free.

    Links to suppliers in the posts….

    Carrier Bags reusable

    Cotton string bags are fantastic. These are my best bags and I use them most of the time. They have ...
    Read More

    Chop Sticks Folding

    The curse of the plastic chopstick wrapper means that eating plastic-free South East Asian style  can be hard work. So ...
    Read More

    Clothing Homemade Denim 3/4 length

    No Daisy Dukes for me! Check out these bad boys! Below the knee, denim shorts with half gather waist. Made ...
    Read More

    coffee press travel mug

    I love coffee and I carry my own coffee making equipment with me when backpacking, (yes really I do), but ...
    Read More

    Cups BYO

    Any one lucky enough to see the photos of Vladimir Putin bare-chested in camo  will have some idea just how ...
    Read More

    Cutlery – travel

    The buffet cars on Polish trains are so cute. They are relatively modern but have an old-fashioned feel. Perhaps it’s ...
    Read More

    Fake-bake plastic-free

    Every year they, the fashionistas, say that pale is interesting - well up here in the windswept north of England ...
    Read More

    Glasses / Tumblers/ Pint Pots

    When we go travelling, camping, partying or picniking, we take our own steel tumblers for wine and other beverages. They ...
    Read More

    Hankerchiefs

    Snot rags! Ughhh..... Remember the old days when you had a hanky tucked up your sleeve or even in the hem of your ...
    Read More

    How Backpackers Live Without Bin Liners

    All the hotels we stayed in in China line the bins with plastic bags. When they clean the rooms I ...
    Read More

    Lunch box or tiffin tin

    Street food in Asia is good and cheap but sadly now involves a lot of plastic. These days it is ...
    Read More

    Menstrual internal protection reusable

    Products to deal with menstruation are plastic heavy  ( see some stats). They are made from plastic, come wrapped in plastic, ...
    Read More

    Mosquito Repellent

    It's that time of night when sitting on the balcony becomes a feat of endurance rather than a pleasure and ...
    Read More

    Produce Bags

    Produce bags are reusable bags that (as the name suggests), you put your loose produce in. It means you don't ...
    Read More

    Sun Block Creams & Lotions

     The following information is for guidance only. None of the following recipes or tips have not been tested on anyone ...
    Read More

    Take your own …. tray???

    A tin cup and folding chop sticks  for sure ... but taking your own tray? Backpacking? In China they have some really great food stalls ...
    Read More

    Talcum Powder

    Suffering from sweaty, itchy bits ? Try this tropical talc in metal tins. It soothes and calms and leaves no ...
    Read More

    Toothpaste, toothpowder, dentifrice homemade

    Dentifrice - toothpaste or  toothpowder whichever, it  is basically an abrasive to clean and polish the teeth. Most brands come packed ...
    Read More

    Water steriliser – SteriPEN

    Its easy to give up bottled water in England but what of when you are abroad? in countries where the ...
    Read More
  • Things To Write About

  • Buy

    One of the real joys of buying #plasticfree is sourcing the stuff in local shops. The excitement when you see milk in glass bottle in the newsagents is beyond words.

    However sometime you have to buy on line. Most of the products featured have an online option to buy. Though we try to link with business we know we cannot always do this. Then we try to find a similar product on Amazon.

    Amazon is a very dirty word at the moment and I thought long and hard before suggesting them.  Heres why I went ahead….. No we are not entirely happy with Amazons recent history. However, we have always found their service to be good and their packaging usually compostable.

    If you buy a product via this link we do get an affiliation fee for this. This is not why we do it.

    Steripen Adventurer Opti Handheld UV Water Purifier - Black/Green SteriPEN UV Traveler Mini Opti TRMO-MM-GF Water Purifier Silver / Black Steripen Traveler 3 in 1 Handheld UV Water Purifier
    Steripen Adventurer Opti Handheld UV Water …
    £76.48
    SteriPEN UV Traveler Mini Opti TRMO-MM-GF W… Steripen Traveler 3 in 1 Handheld UV Water …
    £43.63
    Steripen FitsAll Filter Steripen Classic Pre-Filter Pack Portable UV Water Purifier - White/Blue Klean Kanteen 18oz Reflect Mirrored
    Steripen FitsAll Filter
    £12.99
    Steripen Classic Pre-Filter Pack Portable U…
    £57.86
    Klean Kanteen 18oz Reflect Mirrored
    £18.80
    Klean Kanteen Reflect-Mirrored-27 oz / 800 ml Square Indian-Tiffin Box Stainless Steel with Additional Container Yellowstone 300Ml Stainless Steel Mug
    Klean Kanteen Reflect-Mirrored-27 oz / 800 ml
    £25.79
    Square Indian-Tiffin Box Stainless Steel wi…
    £9.99
    Yellowstone 300Ml Stainless Steel Mug
    £4.53
    Sustainable Bamboo Drinking Straws - 12 Pack Lifeventure Knife, Fork, Spoon Folding Cutlery Set Travel Stainless Steel Foldable Pocket Chopsticks Silver Tone Pair
    Sustainable Bamboo Drinking Straws – 12 Pack
    £14.95
    Lifeventure Knife, Fork, Spoon Folding Cutl…
    £13.89
    Travel Stainless Steel Foldable Pocket Chop…
    £2.51

     

     

  • N.B.

    Lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

    And before you go…

    If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project (read more here) or

    Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

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