You arrive at your hotel or Airbnb. You’re either given a couple of plastic bottles of water, or you’re told the tap water is safe to drink, but it has a strong chlorine smell. You don’t want to risk getting sick on vacation, so you go out and buy bottled water, lugging all those bottles back to your accommodation.

Then you discover there are no recycling options, so the bottles end up in the trash. You know single-use plastic isn’t the answer. But you’re on vacation. You just want to enjoy yourself, and the last thing you need is Montezuma’s revenge!

For the tourist, bottled water seems like the easiest option. And from the accommodation provider’s perspective, putting a couple of bottles in the room can seem like a simple solution too. But what if clean, filtered drinking water was readily available for guests to refill a reusable bottle?

The tourist gets good-tasting drinking water without having to buy and carry bottles. The accommodation uses less single-use plastic. The destination has less waste to deal with, and there is less potential for litter and pollution.

There is also a better experience for the traveler. Tap water can be a perfectly good option when it is safe to drink and tastes good. But if it has a strong chlorine taste or smell, tourists may choose bottled water simply because they don’t want to take the chance.

Providing filtered water does require some upfront thought and investment. But when we look beyond that initial cost and consider what happens after we are finished with the product, the calculation starts to look very different.

What can accommodation providers do?

It doesn’t have to be complicated. Make it clear when the water is safe to drink. If the water is safe and filtered, tell your guests. A simple label beside the water source can remove uncertainty.

For example:

“Our drinking water is safe to drink and filtered on-site.
We love our guests and our planet, so please enjoy and refill!”

Make refilling convenient

If guests have to ask reception or walk across the property every time they want water, bottled water may still seem like the easier option. A refill station or filtered water source in a convenient location can make a big difference.

Consider a reusable filtered pitcher

For some accommodation providers, a reusable pitcher with an integrated filtration system could provide guests with convenient drinking water without relying on individual plastic bottles. Reusable glasses can complete the experience.

With a little creativity, reusable glass bottles or jars can even add character to a room, reflect the personality of a property, and become part of the guest experience.

What can tourists do?

Accommodation providers and destinations can make the sustainable choice more convenient for travelers. But travelers also have a role to play. There are simple things we can do to make more sustainable choices easier while we travel.

Carry a reusable bottle with an integrated filtration system

Having a water bottle with an integrated filtration system means that you can drink from any tap water and not have to worry. You also can conveniently empty the bottle before going through airport security and refill on the other end. A win-win.

Just make sure you know what your filter is designed to remove. Not every filter makes unsafe water safe to drink. If you’re travelling somewhere where the water may be microbiologically unsafe, check local guidance and use a filtration or purification method appropriate for those risks.

Ask about the water beforehand

If you’re unsure, ask whether the tap water is safe to drink, whether it is filtered, and where you can refill your bottle. And when you find a business doing something well, let them know. Guest expectations can help encourage more businesses to adopt these practices.

Equally, if you choose not to stay somewhere because drinking water is only provided in single-use plastic bottles, let them know that too.

Choose accommodation and places where you know you can drink the water safely.

What happens after the trash bin? The shift from linear to circular thinking

What looks like the cheapest and most convenient option isn’t always the cheapest and most convenient when we consider the bigger picture, including what happens after the trash bin.

A couple of plastic bottles may seem inexpensive. But the true cost goes beyond the price tag: packaging, transportation, collection, disposal, recycling or landfill, potential litter – including the time and money volunteers and NGOs spend cleaning it up – and the resources required to manage the waste.

There is also the impact on the destination itself. Nobody wants to visit a beautiful tourism destination surrounded by plastic waste. It affects the visitor experience, the image of the destination, and whether visitors want to come back. And that has an economic cost too.

This is why we need to change the way we think about convenience and affordability.

Circular thinking isn’t necessarily about asking people to pay more or sacrifice convenience. It is about looking at the whole system and designing better ways of doing things. Sometimes the sustainable choice isn’t actually less convenient or more expensive. Sometimes we just need to look at the whole picture.

Making better choices easier to find

At Sustainable Tourist Hub, one of our aims is to make it easier for tourists to find businesses, destinations and organizations that are already making these kinds of choices. That includes something as basic as knowing where you can find clean, filtered drinking water without relying on single-use plastic.

There are businesses and destinations already doing these things. The challenge is making them easier to find and easier for travelers to choose.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/real-cost-bottle-water-tourism-sustainable-tourist-hub-buzgc/