Mountain Kingdoms Helps You Do Your Bit to Reduce Plastic Waste
With the release of Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet series in 2018, the use of single use plastic was brought to the forefront of every viewer’s mind. At an office meeting, this topic was raised and we decided that Mountain Kingdoms must do something.
For many years we have given our clients either a Mountain Kingdoms branded fleece or a kit bag when they book at holiday with us. From 2019 we decided to offer clients the choice of either a fleece or water bottle instead. At a trade fair we had seen the Water-to-Go stand and. We spoke at length to the company and did some research to find out more about these amazing refillable water bottles that filter water from any source (from a muddy puddle upwards).
As at 31 October 2019 we have given 367 bottles to clients free of charge. If these clients solely used their Water to Go bottle, rather than single use plastic bottles of mineral water, on an average typical two week break, we would have helped to stop over 20,500 single use 500ml plastic bottles being used. Our guides always make sure that any litter from our groups is picked up and disposed of correctly but by using these reusable bottles our customers are also helping us to address the terrible litter problem that plagues some of the countries we visit by minimising waste.
It was particularly exciting to see the arrival of the water bottles and we are delighted with our logo. The bottle lids unfortunately caused some problems so we gave our customers advice about how to prevent leaks and improve flow. Water to Go has however now completely re-designed the lid so these issues have hopefully been resolved.
All in all it has been a successful venture and it has certainly focussed our minds on responsible tourism here at Mountain Kingdoms and we are currently researching many other ways to make our holidays more sustainable. Even though it is a small dip in the ocean, we are making a difference and changing people’s attitudes along the way.
