The End!

For my last blog post for this project I thought I would end on a positive note! As I have been doing research for this blog, I have come across many websites with environmentally friendly travel advice. I thought I would share a few things that I believe are the best tips to follow.

 

• Let Your Taste Buds Be Adventurous! - Eating locally grown foods can greatly reduce the packaging that imported food has to be stored in. Think about how far your food has had to travel, and how much plastic or paper you can save by buying fruits and veggies from a local market. Use a reusable shopping bag to carry them home!
• Avoid Bottled Water! - As we all know, plastic bottles count for a large portion of the worlds waste. Bring and use reusable bottles whenever you can!
• Travel Size Packages! - They may be small and convenient, but they have so much extra packaging for such a little amount of product. You can buy refillable small containers to use on vacation, instead of buying new ones each time.
• Booking Your Trip! - Many hotels and tour operators today have recycling initiatives and go that extra mile to be environmentally friendly. Try to choose these companies to use on your holidays, they can help you make a difference.
• Volunteer Your Time! - While on vacation, there are many things you can do to help. You can take it upon yourself to to a beach garbage cleanup, or just walk along a sidewalk and pick up and properly dispose of any garbage you encounter (of course be careful of anything that might be dangerous!) Surely there are companies that schedule these types of cleanups for different areas, and I'm certain they would greatly welcome any new volunteers! Check this out!

http://www.billysandifer.com/cleanup.htm

 

 

• And of course, Don't be a litter bug!! - Whenever you visit an area, always take your garbage with you if there are no garbage cans, such as on a bus. Or if the garbage cans are overflowing, take the garbage with you and dispose of it in a different way. It will feel good to do your part and not add garbage to the locations that you travel to.

Here are a few links to other environmentally friendly travel tips:

 

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/BusinessTravel/story?id=4454257&page=1

 

http://journals.worldnomads.com/responsible-travel/story/59121/Worldwide/Top-10-Tips-for-Environmentally-friendly-travel

 

http://greenliving.nationalgeographic.com/ecofriendly-holiday-2405.html

 

If everyone does their part, we can keep our world looking like this:

 

http://www.usatravelhotel.com/category/landscapes/

 

And not like this:

 

http://beatmag.com/daily/heavy-trash-affects-tabanan-beaches/

 

Thank you for coming on this journey with me! I enjoyed learning all about garbage and the effects it has on our world and the tourism industry. I hope you enjoyed reading and learning with me! Thanks!

Leonard says - Don`t be a littler bug like me! Goodbye!



Eco Tourism!

Ecotourism is defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people." http://www.ecotourism.org/what-is-ecotourism

 

This is The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) website. It stresses that to be eco-friendly we must unite conservation, communities and sustainable travel. TIES is a non profit organization that is committed to promoting ecotourism practices, and has a network that spans over 120 countries. There is an annual Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference, which is held this year in Nairobi, Kenya, at the end of September. Something that I think is very helpful is the Opportunities for Travellers section of the website. There are tips to learn how to be an eco-friendly traveller, and also a traveller membership that you can sign up for and they will send you advice on how you can make a difference with your next vacation. This sounds awesome to me, as its free, and all travellers can access this information easily and make their trips better for the environment.

Check out the website to learn more! 

http://www.ecotourism.org/

Another website that I found while researching this topic is the Great Green Idea. It has so much information about being "green"! Including great videos, articles, ideas, and news to do with everything green. This is the green travel section of the website and the articles offer many great insights into being environmentally friendly when you travel.

http://www.greatgreenidea.com/Green-Travel.html

As I am doing continual research for this blog, I feel my self becoming more aware of my impacts with the choices that I make. I am always looking for articles in the newspaper and shows on the TV about environmental issues in the tourism industry. Also I am enjoying learning about some of the easy things we can do to help, such as recycling, and proper disposal of waste. I am having fun in writing this blog so far :) And Leonard is enjoying himself too!

The Maldives!

This video is not related to tourism but it was one that caught my attention and is about burning of garbage in the Maldives. It is very sad that there are places like this around the world. This just emphasises everything that I said about burning of garbage a few posts ago. Enjoy!

Canadian Waste & Recycling Expo!

While doing research for this blog I came across the Canadian Waste and Recycling Expo! It is a trade show for waste and recycling professionals in Canada, and includes representatives from these sectors:

• Collection
• Hauling
• Disposal
• Construction & Demolition
• Facility/Site Operation
• Landfill Operation
• Federal and Provincial

http://www.cleanwest.com/waste-to-energy/

 

“It is Canada’s ONLY trade event serving the waste, recycling and public works markets.” http://canadian-waste-recycling-expo-us.messefrankfurt.com/montreal/en/for_attendees/welcome.html

The expo is a 2 day event where you can learn about new products and services, gain valuable understanding into the latest developments, and of course networking with competitors and others in the industry. This seems like a great resource to learn all about waste and recycling as there are many different product categories such as composting systems, landfill operations, waste treatment, and software/technology.

 

Check it out! Here is the website that I found: http://canadian-waste-recycling-expo-us.messefrankfurt.com/montreal/en/for_attendees/welcome.html

This year it is held in Montreal, Quebec, and is on November 20-21, 2013.

There is also a Canadian Waste Sector Symposium which in 2012 was held in conjunction with the Canadian Waste and Recycling Expo. It featured 6 keynote speakers, tours of different waste facilities, and over 40 speakers in numerous topics. In 3 years it has become “the place to be” for the waste management sector across Canada. http://www.canwastesectorsymposium.ca/

 

In 2013, the Canadian Waste Sector Symposium will be held in Montreal, Quebec from the 18^th to the 20^th of November, right before the Canadian Waste and Recycling Expo!

 

Burning Garbage!

So apart from landfills, how else can we get rid of garbage? We could burn it? But this would release countless toxic chemicals into the air including dioxins, furans, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). And I can’t even imagine the smoke! If there are toxic chemicals in garbage, the smoke would probably be thick and black, and cover the sky. Beautiful! The article below states that these chemicals that are released can have major side effects including cancer, disorders of the nervous system, and can interfere with child development.

http://www.bcairquality.ca/topics/burning-garbage.html

So let’s say that each country decided to burn their garbage to get rid of it. Would anyone want to visit these destinations anymore? I know that I would never visit a country that featured large black smoke filling the air, and a chance to contract a deadly disease while I am there. Burning garbage would drastically reduce the amount of visitors to an area and probably persuade the residents to even move away. There would be many negative side effects that add onto each other, such as closing of businesses, cancellation of flights due to poor visibility, medical centers would be overflowing with patients with problems caused by the pollution. Sometimes when we visit a certain country we have to get a vaccine that will protect us from a disease or other harmful substance in that area. I don’t think there would be a vaccine to prevent the burning garbage from harming us!

 

This picture is taken from the Responding to Climate Change website, and is from an article that highlights that black carbon is the second most significant contributor to climate change. A major source of black carbon? Landfill fires!

http://www.rtcc.org/black-carbon-second-largest-global-warming-source/

Destinations that market themselves on their beautiful scenery and clean outdoor spaces would have to rethink their strategies! Vacations for tourist who want fresh air and clear blue skies would be no more! Businesses that rely on sunny, warm weather to attract their customers would need to adapt their target markets to consumers who like dull, grey days all year round, and don’t mind thick polluted atmospheres.

Next time I will look into educational opportunities that deal with garbage and pollution and the tourism industry, now that we all have a beautiful picture in our minds of what our world could look like if we burnt out garbage!

 

Landfills!

Today I am going to talk briefly about over flowing landfills and the impacts they impose on the environment, communities, and the tourism industry.

 

The waste in landfills produces a gas (primarily made of methane gas) as it decomposes; this gas contributes to climate change. I found out recently that this gas can be captured and re-used for other jobs, such as ones in the fuel industry and in heating buildings. Wow! This would be so amazing if we could do this all over the world, imagine all that gas we would prevent from going into the atmosphere! http://www.ec.gc.ca/gdd-mw/default.asp?lang=En&n=6F92E701-1

From an article that I read from the Stats Canada website, it mentions that there is concern that our landfills in Canada are almost reaching their capacity! Where are we going to put the garbage if our landfills are full?! This blows my mind! All I can think about is the potential piles of garbage on the side of streets and pretty much anywhere they will fit if the landfills are not available anymore. Imagine what our country (and the rest of the world for that matter) will look like if this happens. Disgusting!

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/16-002-x/2007001/article/10174-eng.htm

 

Probably something like this! Doesn’t it look like a beautiful place to live? And visit? Would we really have tourists and visitors anymore if our destinations looked anything like this? http://epicself.com/nourish/whats-in-your-garbage/

How would we get rid of all this garbage if there was nowhere to store it anymore? We could burn it... but what about all of the toxic pollution that would cause? Burning the garbage would cause so much damage to our environment! There are so many questions that we need answered on this topic, and I hope one day we get them.

I think Leonard would enjoy living in the pile of garbage in the picture above!

Introduction!

For the next few weeks I will be writing about impacts of littering and garbage from the tourism industry. I have never written a blog before so please bear with me! Enjoy!

http://scuba.about.com/od/ConservationandDiving/ss/Dive-Site-Preservation_5.htm

Does this look like a nice place to go on vacation? Definitely not! This is an example of what a destination can look like after tourists have visited a site and obviously have been very inconsiderate. This trash washed up on the beach after tourists that use the ocean (scuba diving, fishing trips, etc) did not dispose of their trash properly. Personally, this is not a beach that I would ever visit if I saw what it was like before going.

 

Litter is simply trash that is put in a place where it doesn't belong. It belongs in a trash can, a landfill, recycling bin, or other disposal facilities. It does not belong on a beach, in a campground, on the street, or anywhere else that is used by the public! Duh! This sounds like common sense to me, but I guess I have to understand that not everyone is smart like us tourism students taking an environmental issues class!

 

Littering can have impacts not only on the aesthetics of a destination but on many other aspects of our world too. Animals can be trapped and killed if they get caught in garbage that is left floating in the sea ...

http://www.thelivingocean.net/2012/05/plastic-trash-altering-ocean-habitats.html

 

Or they can die from starvation if they get caught and can not do anything to save themselves...

Fortunately for this little 6 month old bear cub, he was able to be caught by locals in the area and the FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) and freed from the plastic jar before it was too late.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_lifestyle_animal/2010/08/jarhead-the-bear-cub-who-beat-the-odds-3.html

 

Aside from animals, there can be negative impacts on visitor numbers to a location, reputation of a location, and unnecessary stress for local residents and their waste management facilities.  

 

This is Leonard the litter bug and he will be coming along this journey with us!

http://www.teacherstimesaver.com/litterbann.html