No more guilt trips: how to holiday this year with less plastic

This half-term, the first-ever B-Corp Holiday Park Group, Lovat, and the environmental charity, City to Sea, who campaign to stop plastic pollution, have teamed up to offer 5 simple tips on how families can holiday with less plastic.

Every year tourist destinations around the UK see a surge of littering from tourists causing waves of plastic pollution that could easily be avoided. This summer as families holiday together for the first time without pandemic restrictions providers such as Lovat is working with customers to minimise their environmental impact.

Top Tips:

1. PACK A REFILLABLE WATER BOTTLE

It’s time to get beach bottle ready because water – we can’t live without it. But single-use plastic – we definitely can.

When travelling, make sure the first thing in your hand luggage is your reusable water bottle. Then using our Refill app you can find places to top it up. At the Lovat holiday parks in Cornwall, Norfolk and the New Forest, this is essential as here there are NO single-use plastic bottles sold. Every site encourages water refills and is also signed up to the Refill app that signposts customers when they are out and about to where their nearest refill point is.

City to Sea estimates that if just one in ten Brits refilled their water bottle just once a week we’d have 340 million fewer plastic bottles a year.

2. PLAY NICELY AND REUSE YOUR BEACH TOYS

Children will always want a new bucket and spade (just so they can bury you in the sand again). But you don’t need to buy new ones each time. Reusing beach toys is key. And to make that easy Lovat Holiday Parks offers free wooden bodyboard hire. In just one 14,000 bodyboards were abandoned on beaches in the southwest of England alone. Since this was introduced Lovat has been offering free to hire wooden bodyboards for families to enjoy that can be used time and time again with no plastic waste. They also offer “toy libraries” for keeping young ones happy when they’re away from home.

3. SAY NO TO TRAVEL MINIATURES 

We’re looking at you, tiny tempting plastic toiletries. You look desirable now, but this romance won’t last. You’ll get dumped before the journey home – because we know an estimated 980 tonnes of mini plastic shampoo bottles are thrown away by British holidaymakers each year. That’s the equivalent of two-and-a-half Boeing 747s! Talk about crashing down to reality.

Don’t fall for the miniature marketing. Take your own big step and bring toiletries from home in refillable travel-sized containers. Or, if you really need to stock up, choose plastic-free shampoo and soap bars. 

4. CARRY A REUSABLE COFFEE CUP

We love coffee. And it tastes delicious. However, it does have a downside: throwaway coffee cups. In 2017 around 500,000 coffee cups were littered every day in the UK – that’s around 2.5 billion a year. At Lovat cafes they encourage customers to bring reusable coffee cups and only serve in house drinks in traditional reusable cups – the way they’re meant to be.

And when you’re finished with your coffee you be rest assured that even the used coffee grinds will be reused at Lovat with all coffee grinds going into the park wormeries to make compost!

5. JOIN A BEACH CLEAN   

Beach cleans will never solve the plastic crisis but we can all leave the places we visit cleaner than when we left. At Lovat parks they encourage holiday goers (who want to) to join in. On all beach fronts the parks provide litter picking equipment and even organise dunes beach clean parties.

Steve Hynd, Head of Policy at the City to Sea commented, “This half term is all about getting out and spending time with your kids. But with these top tips, there is no need to compromise on fun or the environment. We’re all looking for easy ways to reduce our plastic and that’s exactly what Lovat Parks have achieved by putting in place the infrastructure for fun-filled holidays that can easily avoid pointless plastic. Why wouldn’t all holiday parks introduce a bodyboard borrow and return scheme or introduce water fountains? It’s what customers want and it’s what our planet demands.”

Elisa Edmonds, Chief Brand Officer at Lovat commented, “There’s nothing worse than seeing our beautiful local areas littered with plastic trash.  But it’s more than just visual:  plastic takes thousands of years to break down, it harms marine life and disrupts delicate eco-systems.  The good news is there are plenty of sustainable alternatives to plastic, so it’s a no brainer to provide these for our guests.  We take our responsibilities toward the planet seriously.  Doing everything we can to reduce plastic pollution is simply the right thing to do”

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