How to Eliminate Single-Use Plastics on Vacation | National Geographic

[Music] Made it through the first leg of the trip. It is now 9:00 a.m. I have been up for quite a few hours, and there are no snacks that I could buy because everything is wrapped in plastic.

Hi, I'm Marie McCrory with National Geographic Travel. Recently, I took a trip to Belize, and I challenged myself to do it without any single-use plastics. This is how I'm taking National Geographic's planet or plastic pledge and putting it into action. Belize was actually a really great place to try this. Their government recently announced that they're gonna be banning major single-use plastics.

Avoiding single-use plastics in everyday life is already pretty hard, but doing it while you're traveling can be even harder. It means you have to avoid things like plastic water bottles and those shampoos at hotels, and pretty much anything you can eat in an airport.

Here's what I chose to replace the single-use plastics that I would normally be using: a reusable grocery bag, bamboo utensils, a glass straw, collapsible Tupperware, bar soap, and bar shampoo, two reusable water bottles, and a stereo pump.

There is so much I learned from this experience, but here are four things that I think are really important. The first thing you have to ask: "Got a straw?" On my first night, I neglected to say, "No straw, please." I ended up only using two pieces of single-use plastic on this trip, and both of them were straws, which was surprising because I thought they were gonna be the most avoidable.

The second thing is you have to research the water situation. I couldn't drink the tap water in Belize, and I worried that if I couldn't purify my water, I would end up using dozens of plastic water bottles. I was so relieved that all the lodges I stayed in and a lot of restaurants had purified water stations.

The third tip is that collapsible Tupperware is definitely underrated. Turns out it was great for carrying around snacks and grabbing food to go when I was in a rush. My captain waited a little container for us so we could hurry on our way because we were running late for an excursion.

The last tool tip is you don't always need tools. You can skip single-use plastics without replacing them by saying no to an airplane snack, skipping a sample at an ice cream shop, or asking for a cone instead of a cup.

Towards the end of my trip, I got a reminder of why cutting back on plastics was so important. I was paddleboarding in the Port Endorsed Marine Reserve and noticed a bunch of plastics caught up in the roots of the mangrove. Okay, well, I can't save all the plastic that's back there, but I did get this one big piece that was stuck behind some branches. It was pretty hard to see, and I knew it was only a tiny fraction of what ends up in our oceans.

In the end, I avoided 79 pieces of single-use plastic and only used two on this week-long trip. This experience reminded me that you don't have to be perfect. Even if you mess up along the way, doing something makes a difference. [Music]