Please don’t think that we’re going to suggest a crusade against plastic as your travel plan to Peru. That would be an impossible mission. But we will propose two scenarios or actions that can be easily accomplished, while enjoying the best itinerary designed by your travel specialist at RESPONS.
Being a plastic reporter
In these times of hyperconnectivity, real-time news and powerful social networks, we take advantage of all these and ask you to graphically, and with some extra data (location, date, any other important observation), share all those situations where you see unnecessary use of plastic (unnecessary wrappings in hotel toiletries, food and beverages in packaging and/or with disposable cuttlery), or contamination caused to a greater extent by plastic waste, such as on beach shores, roadsides, streets, etc.
From the moment you arrive in Peru you will receive a SIM card from us with which you can communicate via WhatsApp with the operations staff and with your travel specialist, we invite you to send us all the photos you want with the requested information, so that we can build the report, of which you can be the author, or use anonymity if you prefer.
You can also take all of the information home and send us an email later to sustainability[at]impactful.travel if that’s more comfortable.
Accept the Zero-Plastic Challenge
The “challenge” is to get your zero-waste kit (you know: cutlery set, shopping and laundry bag, canteen and reusable cup, reusable napkin and food container, reusable straw, etc.) and use it at every possible opportunity, we assure you that you will have many!
The second part of the “challenge” is to document all the cases in which you made use of an item in your kit and also, the cases in which you could not use it (whatever the reason). You may also identify which item you missed in your kit or which one was not necessary.
You can tag us on social media (Facebook: responsibletravelperu, Instagram: responsibletravelperu) and leave a brief comment and we’ll be happy to repost the coolest images that include the following hashtags:
#RESPONSzero-waste
#RESPONSagainstplastic
Did you know that RESPONS is a Refill (Stations) Ambassador?
Since late 2019 we made the decision to do something concrete regarding the fight against plastic pollution, and among some of the strategies to be developed, we committed ourselves to convince as many businesses as possible (mostly our service providers) to become refill stations, that is, to provide drinking water at no cost, or for a lower value than the market, to all those who request it when they present themselves with their reusable bottle.
Thus, we have registered different businesses (lodgings, coffee shops) on different platforms, according to your convenience (RefillMyBottle, tap, Closca, mymizu, Refill). And it is through these platforms that users find the refill points through mobile applications or just by identifiying the posters or stickers.
Download them from your app store accordingly and travel through Peru by filling up as much as possible.
Plastic Pollution in Peru
In Peru, the average use of disposable plastics per year is approximately 30 kilos per citizen. So, if we multiply that by 30 million inhabitants and increase what several million tourists, even temporarily, contribute negatively while they visit our country, we would be en route to the million tons of plastic waste per year.
Before we finish we want to share some creepy images of plastic polution in Peru (some of them courtesy of Life Out Of Plastic – LOOP) and a useful resource from our friends of lessplastic.org.uk
