By: Jay Geib - Marketing & Events Manager
At Wanderlust Tours, sustainability is a core part of our mission as a company. We live and breathe the outdoors, whether it be inspiring some folks on our Moonlight & Starlight Canoe Tours, summiting one of the Sisters, or camping with friends. We all want to find ways to limit our carbon footprint and live a more sustainable life so we came up with a few simple, practical, and easily actionable ideas that can help make your daily life a little bit more sustainable.
Reusable Storage Options for Food, Water, and Groceries
Reusable Produce Bags
It seems that most people have made the jump to reusable grocery bags which is awesome, but the single use produce bags are still being overlooked. In our experience, the reusable produce bags make life much easier - we’ve found that our food actually holds longer in the fridge, they often come in a variety of sizes for different items, you can wash them with ease and you can use them for other purposes (we recently used one as a snack bag during a road trip). Did I mention that you’ll never have to spend 5 minutes trying to open up a plastic produce bag again?
Food Huggers
We stumbled upon Food Huggers about 6 months ago and they’re simply amazing. The concept is both simple and effective. Let me paint a picture for you - You like to have a little slice of lemon in your tea in the morning. So each day you cut off another slice and it takes about a week to actually go through a whole lemon. Ordinarily, you’d put that lemon in a plastic bag which in comparison to food huggers, does a pretty crummy job of actually sealing the cut edge of the lemon. Food huggers come in several different sizes and work with just about every type of produce - lemons, limes, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, they even have one that fits on avocados. These things have saved us from buying and using boxes worth of plastic bags.
Beeswax Food Wraps
Another great reusable way to store food is beeswax wraps. You can wash them easily, they do a comparable job to plastic bags and plastic wrap, and they can fit a variety of oddly shaped items.
Reusable Water Bottles
Everyone should have a Nalgene, Hydro Flask, etc. by their side at all times - the same way we always have our cell phones. We should avoid buying single use plastics and water bottles as much as possible. While we all like to believe that the plastic in our recycling bin gets recycled, the sad truth is that over 80% of plastic ends up in landfills or worse - in our waterways, where they slowly break down, are eaten by fish and other wildlife, which can be life threatening for them. It all comes full circle when the wild caught fish we are enjoying contains microplastics.
Reuse Tupperware When You Get Takeout
With covid, we all got a little more used to getting our food to go. And one negative repercussion to this shift and something we should consider when ordering takeout is the single use packaging. Fortunately, some restaurants give you tupperware that's sturdy enough to be reused! Some restaurants will also let you bring your own tupperware which is something you should ask about when ordering.
Bring Your Own Coffee Cup or Thermos
Starbucks and many local coffee shops will let you use your own coffee mug or thermos and will even give you a discount when you bring in your own reusable vessel.
Minimize Your Gas Usage
Carpool When Possible
Life is often more about the journey than it is the destination. Whether you're heading out for a day in the mountains or just heading to dinner, carpooling with others is a great way to reduce your impact on the environment and spend time with friends.
Ride Your Bike for Short Errands
Good for the environment and good for you. Your backpack likely has more than enough space for everything you need! We’re lucky to be in a city like Bend where nearly everything is only a short bike ride away.
Extending the Life of Your Food
Dehydrate Your Fruit
If you have an airfryer, odds are there is a feature to dehydrate food. Maybe you’ve overlooked it in the past but it's actually an amazing way to extend the life of your fruits and veggies! Have some blueberries that you know you’re not gonna get to in time? Dehydrate them and add them to granola, cereal, trail mix, etc. Bananas, apple slices, mangoes, whatever your taste buds desire! Soon you’ll be buying those huge packs of blueberries knowing you can dehydrate some of them.
Recycle Food Scraps
This one will vary for people on the ‘ease of implementation’ depending on where you live, if you have a yard, etc. but we think it's still worth mentioning. A lot of the scraps you throw away from your kitchen can be repurposed in one way or another - especially if you have a garden. A simple example would be coffee grounds. They are high in acidity which make them a great addition to the soil for certain plants and vegetables. If you want to step your sustainable living up to the next level, look into what it takes to make your own compost so you can take food scraps such as banana peels, egg shells, etc. and use them to make nutrient rich soil. If you want to go even further (and if your city/ property allows for it), getting a few chickens is a great way to utilize food scraps (chickens can eat all kinds of food scraps from asparagus ends, strawberry tops, and more) as well as give yourself the gift of a regular supply of fresh eggs!
A Few More Ideas
Reduce The Amount of Meat in Your Diet.
All choices in life come with a cost. The steaks, burgers, and barbacoa tacos that can taste so amazing are no exception. The meat in our diet is very resource intensive. It takes huge sums of water, grain, grass, and land to raise the cattle, pigs, and chickens we eat. If people were able to reduce the amount of meat they consume by 15, 25, 50%, it would have far reaching impacts on energy and resource use. Start with a small goal of 1 or 2 meat free days per week and go from there.
Bundle Up in The Winter
Heating your home in the winter can be an energy intensive endeavor, especially if you really want to crank it up. Instead of cranking your heat up, cozy up in a sweatshirt and blanket while you watch a movie!
Water Conscious Landscaping
It's no secret that Bend is in the high desert and rain is hard to come by. Water conservation is a big topic in Bend and one of the best measures we can take to minimize our water consumption is to ditch the green grass in our front yard for some native plants that require little water and are very easy to maintain.
Do Less
It’s easy to get wrapped up in all of the things we can add to the never ending to-do list that is life. Walk the dog, meet up with friends, hike up a butte, grocery shopping, etc. Oftentimes, it can be more impactful and often more enjoyable to simply do less. We live in a society of never ending to-do lists with only a finite amount of time to get those things done. It can be liberating to take time for yourself to go on a walk or read for a few hours.
Doing less doesn’t mean cutting adventure or fun out of your life, but rather taking into account the energy and resources used for trips to far off places. There is certainly a time and benefit for these types of trips, but the simple, local option is less energy intensive and takes advantage of the beauty near your home.
Live with More Intention
Sustainable living, at its core, is about living life with more intention. Living with more understanding and thought about the world around you and your impact on it. Trying to live with more intention is an overarching idea that you can apply to how you approach your daily life. Take into consideration the environmental impacts of certain decisions, raise and contemplate important societal questions, and more. Thoughtfulness is something the world needs in all aspects right now.
