Lessen your impact: how to pack like an eco-hero

Mind the gap: it’s a phrase all Tube-taking Londoners are familiar with. However, there’s another gap we need to be mindful of and that’s the chasm between our behaviour at home and away when it comes to sustainability. Reusable shopping bags, drinking bottles and cool coffee cups may be de rigeur in the capital, but they can get forgotten in a packing panic. Forget fast fashion for your travel essentials: mindful shopping is an essential first step to being an eco traveller, so read on for some of the best ideas on the market.

Second-life luggage

The best thing we can do is just keep using what we’ve got, but if the time has come to treat yourself to a new bag, check out ROKA London. This British B Corp-certified company makes brightly coloured canvas bags from recycled plastic bottles. We love that so many of them have London-themed names, too, such as the Paddington cross-body. Another UK-based upcyled luggage label is Upso, which repurposes old truck tarpaulins to make cabin bags, messengers and other snazzy accessories for your sojourns.

Marine-friendly sunscreen

This is an essential, as some of the chemicals in sun lotions can have a seriously negative impact on coral reefs. In particular, they cause bleaching, and ultimately the killing of the reefs. Hawaii led the way when it legislated against sunscreens containing reef-ruiners oxybenzone and octinoxate. Green People’s products are popular, promoting reef-safe fun in the sun. Nivea is newer to the reef-safe party: its sun protection is from £6 for a 200ml SPF30 lotion.

Zero-waste sunglasses

Waterhaul’s sunglasses are a work of genius. Hailing from Newquay in Cornwall, this brand has found a way to alchemise a little of the absurd amount of plastic washed up on Cornish shores to create frames for sunnies and prescription specs. Pretty important when you know just under half of ocean plastics come from ghost nets, the term used for fishing nets that are abandoned or lost, and left to litter marine habitats.

Water-filtering bottles

Trade up your reusable water bottle for a smarter purifying version that lets you drink water safely from mountain streams, lakes or taps you’re otherwise wary about. Water-to-Go is a winner with its built-in filtration system that eliminates toxins and helps you skip sipping from single-use plastic destined for landfill. It’s especially satisfying if you get its bio-based 550ml number (pictured), made from sugar cane.

Local currency in small notes or coins

It’s become an anathema to Londoners to carry cash these days, but a simple step towards supporting small businesses on your travels is to pay with cash. Stock up on notes and coins for tipping, shopping in local markets or for paying for your iced coffee. Not tapping to pay means that local businesses don’t have to carry endless bank costs. On a practical level, they don’t always have such easy access to ATMs, digital banking and so on. Some of the most cash-reliant countries? Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, Bulgaria and Vietnam.

Picnic pick-me-ups

Collapsible lunch boxes are the flat-packs of the snack world. Made from food-safe silicone, you squeeze them flat to pack, and pop them up to pack a picnic. Stojo’s collection of pastel-coloured beauties include flat-pack bowls, coffee cups and bento boxes that squash to just a couple of centimetres. If you like to graze on the go and leave fewer single-use implements in your wake, a humble bamboo spork and a metal or silicone straw are other nifty additions to your backpack.

Shampoo bars

Say goodbye to plastic packaging and to weighing down your bags with bottles by trying out handy hair products in solid bar form. Some of the best options come from small UK businesses like the Dorset Soap Co, the Yorkshire Soap Company and Welsh brand Cole & Co. The latter’s Lan Y Môr (”seaside”) shampoo bar is free of sodium lauryl sulphate and comes in its own travel tin.

Natural repellent

Anyone who’s had a fling with midges in Scotland will know that Scottish brands of insect repellent are likely to mean business. Smidge, Anderson Aromatics’ Beastie be Gone or Cubby’s Midge Salve use natural ingredients, rather than DEET, and are all great at warding off the biters.

An all-weather brolly

Unlike the virtually disposable array of a cheap and not-so-cheerful umbrellas, which are destined for almost-immediate landfill, the wind-proof Blunt is the strongest brolly brand on the market: tested under extreme conditions and built to last. Original Duckhead’s colourful canopies are also a good option. The fabric is made from recycled plastic bottles – nine per umbrella, in fact – and any leftover is used to make reusable shopping bags to match. In short, it’s got you covered.

Eco laundry-detergent sheets

You may not even contemplate laundry when you’re travelling but eco detergent sheets are a simple solution to washing your kit when you’re camping or renting an Airbnb with a machine. Try those made by UK companies Simple Living Eco or The Green Company: they are, quite simply, single sheets of concentrated, eco-friendly soap that dissolve during the washing cycle. AKA teeny sustainable smellies for your smalls. What’s not to love?

Plastic-free sanitation

Look at what you’re taking through a landfill lens, and you’ll be sure to be leaving those unflushable baby wipes or plastic-based period products behind. Pack a washable flannel instead of wet wipes, for example. Or check out biodegradable beauties such as Jude’s bamboo pads or plastic-free period products from Mondays, which come in a handy recyclable travel case.

Medical supplies (but only if requested)

It’s a bit of a cliché if you’re travelling to a low-income country, to pack sweets, toys or pens for local children attitudes. Instead, if you’re going to an economically challenged destination, it’s best to check with your holiday provider about what might be a welcomed gift for that particular community — certain medicines might be needed in remote rural areas, for example — and it may also be better to buy it in situ and support their economy.