zero-waste travel

We Travel and Blog

Zero-waste travel is part of the zero-waste movement. This environmental movement picked up steam in the early 2000s to promote responsible production (eliminating packaging and toxins), sustainable consumption (use all you can), and reuse (whatever you can’t consume).

Zero-waste refers to the elimination of forms of harmful refuse, especially packaging that ends up in landfills and incinerators. Ultimately, a zero-waste lifestyle generates no trash–nothing that can’t be repurposed in some way. Recycling and composting are pillars of a zero-waste strategy. Reducing single-use plastics has also been a major focus in the late 2010s.

It wasn’t long before the zero-waste movement turned its eye towards travel. In general, traveling can be incredibly waste-intensive, from single-use travel toiletries, to plastic packaging, to the carbon emissions from planes and cars.

The phrase zero-waste travel is evidenced by at least 2012, when Amy Korst included a chapter on it in her book The Zero-Waste Lifestyle. The term, and concept, spread in 2015 with bloggers and vloggers documenting their own adventures in–and providing guides to–zero-waste travel. 

In addition to zero-waste travel, other efforts in the zero-waste movement include zero-waste cities, zero-waste homes, and zero-waste stores.