Conscious Packing for a Beach Vacation

While planning an eco-friendly vacation, sometimes big-ticket items first flash before one’s eyes: how to travel and which accommodations would fit our budget. You, however, would wonder about the environment-friendly thoughts on how to pack for a beach trip.

Pack sustainably for your beach trip and reduce your environmental footprint. Book online Affordable international flight tickets from the USA to India on the trusted website Airfarebooking.com  and start your eco-friendly adventure today!

With the least effort and proper planning, one can pack all their beach stuff while being eco-friendly and socially friendly.  Follow these practical tips for doing the same.

Responsible Travel: Pack a Picnic

Let’s kick off with a summer classic: a beach picnic. Imagine being there, with the sun on your skin, an ample hat on your head, and sand all over you. The are so many wonderful things to do for the picnic, such as, instead of buying the picnic foods from the supermarket why not buy from the local market food that has been harvested from the nearby farm.

Well, by consuming locally grown fruits, vegetables, cheese and meats not only you are getting real fresh food but also helping local farmers. Just make sure that when you are packing everything to bring into the area, you have your eco-friendly bag with you. This method of preparing your picnic is both tasty and sustainable and the perfect way to go green.

Reusable Mantra

Pack a few fresh picnic goodies and you will probably want to bring something to serve them at the beach. Pack cloth napkins instead of those flimsy paper napkins. These will be used over and over again and then washed at home.

The same goes for cups and cutlery-there are many lightweight, reusable forms of each that are easy to pack for a day at the beach. Simply run water over them to clean them after the meal, and then they’re good to go for your next outdoor feast; it’s simply a way of cutting down on waste while enjoying a really good meal by the sea.

Bring a water bottle to the beach to enjoy in between the swims. If you haven’t already got one, think about using at least a recycled material-made bottle, or a brand that has achieved B-Corp certification. B-Corp is a certification that ensures that your desired company looks after the environment as well as the social side, making your purchase contribute positively.

Skin Care and Protection of the Planet

Any trip to the beach requires an application of lotion, sadly, most of the lotion we apply has chemicals that are not so friendly to our oceans, beaches and the corals in particular. Select over-the-counter organic UV filters, specifically non-nano zinc oxide which is believed not to harm your skin or the ocean in any way. Do not purchase products that have the following chemicals which are toxic to reefs – oxybenzone and octinoxate.

Indeed, Hawaii went a step ahead in the year 2018 by prohibiting sunscreens that include these chemicals with a view of protecting their coral reefs. Switching to reef-safe sunscreen is one of the easiest yet effective steps towards skincare for your skin and Earth.

When choosing sunscreen and other toiletries for the beach, resist the temptation of mini bottles. Be creative and recycle containers from previous trips or purchase reusable products you can use on multiple occasions. For the more adventurous types, you can even prepare your sunscreen, just make sure it protects well enough against UVA and UVB rays.

Limit exposure of course. Pack a beach umbrella, and a wide-brimmed hat, and make it a point to seek shade during those peak sun hours between 10 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. Simple steps to keep your skin safe and enjoy going out at the beach without being guilty of harming your own skin and the environment too.

Plastic Free Trip

We are aware that plastic waste is a big issue and yet, the numbers are shocking. In fact, approximately 12 million tonnes of plastics find their way into the oceans each year, with threats ranging from any species that occupies seas, reefs or other aquatic life forms. It’s identified in the furthest corners of the earth and damages sea life.

If you go to the beach, try and ensure that you do not have any trace of your visit. Make sure you do not leave behind anything that is brought into the mobile environment – no exceptions. In case you can pick up your litter don’t you think it is possible to go an extra step? It may be advisable to run a few laps around the beach cleaning up other litter that may be witnessed on the same lap.

In  2022, the environmental charity SAS began the Million Mile Clean campaign, organising for volunteers around the UK to each adopt ten miles of land to clean. Teammates of Ocean Patrol revealed that in 2021, over twenty thousand volunteers cleared over seventy-nine kg of plastic from the South-West of England.

I believe that through this collective action, a lot of persons have benefited because it proves that even if one started small one was able for them to create the change they wanted. Well, every piece that is pulled out from the environment has already made a world of a difference – so why not be a part of that change?

Eco-Friendly Beach Accessories

A towel is a must whether you spend the day going in and out of the water or simply lazing about with a good book. Rather than a standard cotton towel, though, think about a towel made from bamboo fibre. This has some great eco-friendly benefits: it takes an awful lot less water to produce, releases more oxygen into the atmosphere, stays naturally resistant to odours-even when damp-and dries you four times faster than cotton too!

Your swimsuit, too, can be sustainable. Many brands are now using recycled materials for swimwear. For example, the surf brand Finisterre in Cornwall uses recycled ocean plastics to make some of its clothing. They’ve also founded the scheme Wetsuits from Wetsuits whereby they recycle old wetsuits into new ones.

If you are taking children with you, you may need to pack some beach toys like a bucket and spade. Again rather than shopping there, make do with items you have available at home, such as ice cream tubs, Tupperware, or old jam jars, which might get sent to the recycling unit anyway.

If staying in localities, ask your accommodation if you can borrow beach toys and return them at the end of your visit. Well, speaking of travel, buy flight tickets to Hyderabad  from the USA  on Airfarebooking.com and cherish your eco-tourism the correct way

Beach toys have already become an intrinsic part of such settings. You can enjoy your beach day while keeping yourself in check with the environment.

Reading Impact on the Earth

Do you enjoy going to the beach and reading a good book? Well, an e-reader can be convenient when bringing a few books on vacation – no bulging or heavy bags.  However, do you ever wonder if an e-reader is more environmentally sound than having a stack of paper books? Let me take a little more time to explore the two factors more closely.

First of all, when we are printing books, we are cutting down trees which has a meaning in terms of deforestation. The paper-making process also involves the use of some variable that is a threat to the environment including the use of water and energy for activities like bleaching, drying and glueing.

Trees also function as carbon storage because they remove Carbon dioxide from the environment. This carbon is then released into the atmosphere when they have cut down the trees.

So is an e-reader indeed the better choice?

Not quite. Electronic readers, or e-readers, get a clean feeling of being earth-friendly; however, such readers are by no means entirely friendly to the environment. But to get electric devices such as e-readers; it requires the mining of critical metals which include copper, lithium and cobalt.

At times, it takes 15kg of minerals just to manufacture one e-reader. Most of these minerals are mined in areas where practices involved in mining are disastrous and even lead to wars, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Another is that the process of creating an e-reader’s battery printed circuit boards and refining the metals used in these device parts requires an astounding 79 gallons of water. While it is true that an e-reader saves us trees and paper, an e-reader brings its environmental burden with it.

Comparing their whole life cycle makes it necessary to weigh between them if they are an eco-friendly option. Of course, e-readers consume energy for charging, and there is a carbon footprint to download as well as store e-books. There isn’t an easy answer, but studies indicate you’d need to read about 36 books on an e-reader to replace the energy used to print and make paper books.

If you still can’t make up your mind, borrow books or e-readers from your local library and when the book is over, lend or donate to help keep the book circulation going as well as avoid waste.

Mindful Buying

When packing your beach bag, remember to buy new whenever it is necessary. Ecological products are still less sustainable than the procedure of buying secondhand items or reusing the existing articles. The problem of utilizing an item for a longer period is always better than using resources to buy a new product which always requires energy and raw materials.

In addition, by reusing or buying secondhand equipment, you also limit new demand for equipment, which is beneficial in cutting manufacturing pollution. That is simple and effective if practised to minimize the amount consumed.

Off to the Seaside

If you are lucky enough to find accommodation within walking distance of the sand, then bravo! If you are further away, the temptation to take the car will be there, but don’t give in! Why not rent a bicycle or electric scooter to cruise down those sandy lanes, or maybe there’s a local bus that will take you there?  Why not try asking your hotel reception how you can get to the beach Environmentally friendly!  So to be comfortable and guarantee both environmental responsibility and an enjoyable trip, use business class travel tickets from USA to India before planning your trip to the next destination.

Also Read: Journey to Goa for Winter Vacations: India’s Party Capital