By: P.Ling on 03 30, 2010
The Ocean Lakes Campground in Myrtle Beach, SC has dedicated a truck and manpower to haul its waste to a local recycling facility.
Not that its a dazzling innovation in eco-friendly camping, but when someone goes out of their way to be more environmentally responsible, its a notable thing.
Especially so because Ocean Lakes was the first campground in the area to do it.
The waste truck is part of their ‘iCare’ program, for which Ocean Lakes won the 2009-2010 Plan-It Green Award from the National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds.
Their 20-yard rear loader garbage truck has already delivered eight tons to the recycling facility since January.
Also in January, the campground mounted a solar panel on the roof of an existing bathhouse to heat the water for the 12 shower stalls and the sinks.
Campers are asked to use the iCare kit to pick up after their pets in order to reduce pet pollution, which can be harmful to the ocean and marine life.
Barb Krumm from the Ocean Lakes Family Campground says “Personally, I have recycled for years, but to see how the recyclables are processed really helps you understand… why you should remove all bottle caps and never mix plastic bags in with the other recyclables.”
For more information, visit www.oceanlakes.com.
By: Tom Mercer on 10 15, 2007
By now, the environmental sins of bottled water have been well-documented. Bottled water is a luxury good in the developed world, where we can drink water that’s just as good (if not better) right out of the tap. Plus, only about one-fourth of the plastic bottles that we consume in this country actually get recycled. And the petroleum that we use to produce the PET bottle plastics is derived from petroleum.
All in all, plastics are a dirty material, mainly because they never biodegrade, so unless we recycle it, the plastic we produce could well fester in a landfill or float on the surface of the ocean for generations… possibly forever. Charles Moore is well known for his research on the floating plastic in the oceans, mainly because he found a persistent area of floating plastic the size of Texas out in the North Pacific Ocean.
The bottom line? We need to find ways to curb our consumption of plastic, and unfortunately, one of the times we feel we can’t avoid consuming beverages in plastic bottles is when we’re traveling. Here are a couple of tricks to avoid plastic bottles entirely:
1) When flying, bring an empty plastic bottle or Nalgene through security and fill it up at a water fountain inside security. As long as you’re not transporting any liquids at all, you are unlikely to run afoul of security. Aluminium bottles are an even more stylish choice of container.
2) When traveling to a country where you can’t drink the water straight out of the tap, consider bringing a purifying system instead of drinking bottled water. Obviously, this is more practical in Russia than, say, Bangladesh, but if you bring your MSR purification system (a filter alone is not sufficient to kill viruses - for that you need chlorine), you should be able to make the drinking water potable in most situations. Consult the manufacturer to confirm that your choice of purification systems kills all the local critters you’ll be exposed to.
(Thanks to the folks at Lonely Planet for this second tip!)
By: Yen Lee on 10 12, 2007
Whereas the environmental impact of transportation is fairly clear-cut, other travel decisions can be significantly more fuzzy. Lodging is a good example. What is it that makes a hotel environmentally friendly? Sure, it’s great to give guests the option of reusing towels, but what else should hotels be doing to minimize their impact? And how can you pick a hotel that is genuinely minimizing their environmental impact?
The first thing to look for is whether a hotel in your destination has been certified by a Green Lodging organization. Although there is not a universal standard for hotel certification, there are several smaller organizations that certify hotels on a regional basis. Below are a few of the organizations to try first:
Once you’ve exhausted these organizations, you have a couple of options. First of all, you could try booking hotel chains that have made a public commitment to environmental practices, such as Hilton. Motel 6 has even professed to be “born-again” green, but as with all non-certified properties, you should ask what they are really doing beyond the bare minimum to reduce their energy and waste streams.
Finally, your last resort is to book your lodging independently and do your own research. “Research” means calling your top contenders and asking some hard questions. In an interview with MSN, Ronald Sanabria, the director of sustainable tourism for the Rainforest Alliance in Costa Rica, suggests the following questions:
How does your property contribute to the local community?
- What is your property doing to conserve energy and water?
- What does your property do to minimize waste and its impact on the community?
- How does your property promote sustainable travel?
Finally, if you’re staying in a lodge that claims to be an eco-tourist retreat and is located in an environmentally important or sensitive area, it’s especially important that you do your due diligence and make sure that they’re living up to their “eco-tourist” label, because if they don’t, they may be doing serious damage to the ecosystem and the local communities. ResponsibleTravel.com has a list of 10 additional questions to ask, including how many locals (including guides) the facility employs and what education programs they have on local ecology and culture, among others.
