TRAVERSE Issue 03 - December 2017 | Page 16

Sustainable Travel Conscientious or sustainable travel is becoming ever- more important as many more people take to exploring the world by motorcycle. Plastics, especially those dis- garded, are becoming a problem that not only threatens the environment but perhaps also our very own existence. Dominic Simms of Water-to-Go explains a few simple ways we can reduce our impact when travelliing, whilst ensur- ing we all have a safe source of water ... The UN declared 2017 as the Year of Sustainable Tour- ism for Development. We all share this beautiful world that we live in and it is important that we treat it with care especially when travelling. Some are more fortunate than others to live in developed areas where the culture of trav- el is not as sustainable as it should be. The World Data Bank state that the number of depar- tures that people make from their country of usual res- idence to any other country was 1.36 billion in 2015 and this number is constantly rising. Most of these are hol- idays - the Guardian highlighted that 1.2 billion people holidayed abroad in 2015. A lot of the time, we don’t re- ally think about the places that we are visiting and how it might affect them. It is therefore important that we change attitudes and behaviours to have minimum effect on the environment. Responsible travel is now high on the agenda and hope- fully this will give you a few ideas as to how you can be- come a responsible traveller. Use a Water-to-Go bottle With millions of tourists and travellers exploring ever more exotic destinations every year, having access to safe drinking water is an absolute necessity. Unfortunately, when we travel we are forced to buy bottled water when there is not a safe alternative. Single-use water bottles are having a devastating impact on our planet with the latest report indicating that plastic waste could outnumber fish in the ocean by the year 2050. This is possibly the worst problem that has occurred from travel and is something that has to be addressed. The team at Water-to-Go have been battling this prob- lem right from our inception in 2010 and through pains- taking research we have created a sustainable and respon- sible alternative to the single use plastic water bottle. The Water-to-Go bottle filters out over 99.9% of all the NEWS MAGAZINE TRAVERSE 16 16