Trash summer – how holiday travels leave a mark on nature (and what we can do about it)
Trash summer – how holiday travels leave a mark on nature (and what we can do about it)
Holidays are a time of carefreeness, rest, and contact with nature. It’s a moment when thousands of people travel to the seaside, to the mountains, to campsites, or to national parks to recharge their batteries. Unfortunately, with the wave of tourists comes a wave of waste. Beaches after summer weekends often resemble a waste battlefield – plastic bottles, snack wrappers, cigarette butts, or disposable grills. In forests, there are abandoned cans, and on trails – candy bar wrappers.
This phenomenon is not new, but it is becoming more and more visible every year. According to data from organizations responsible for cleanliness of public spaces, in July and August the amount of waste in popular tourist locations can increase by even dozens of percent. This problem has not only an aesthetic dimension but also an environmental one – waste ends up in waters, soil, and even in the stomachs of animals.
Holiday trash – a side effect of mass tourism
Why is the problem so intense especially in summer? First, seasonal tourism accumulates huge numbers of people in one place in a short time. Second, during holidays, we often allow ourselves “more freedom” – which also means less reflection on what we do with waste. There is also a practical factor: lack of enough trash bins or their overflow in popular locations.
Holiday waste is largely plastic – bottles, cups, cutlery, bags – which decomposes over hundreds of years. Combined with high temperatures and wind, it reaches rivers, lakes, and the sea, and from there – the oceans. We often hear about microplastics in fish or seafood – that is precisely the beginning of it.
After the season – images rarely seen on postcards
When tourists return home, in many places a quiet work – cleaning begins. Beaches, forests, and trails are cleaned by local services, volunteers, and social organizations. It is work whose effect is visible immediately but must be done every year because the problem returns.
What is not visible at first glance are the long-term effects – soil contaminated with chemicals, rivers burdened with plastic particles, and also the loss of natural beauty of places meant to be the showcase of the region.
How to travel and relax without leaving a trash footprint?
Change starts with our daily habits. While traveling, it’s worth remembering a few simple rules:
- Bring a reusable bottle and refill it with water from available sources.
- Use reusable containers and cutlery – also on picnics or camping trips.
- Separate your waste, even if it requires extra effort.
- The “leave no trace” principle – leave the place in the condition you found it (or better – cleaner).
These are small gestures that at the scale of thousands of tourists have huge significance.
How can companies and communities act after holidays?
The post-holiday period is an ideal time to organize clean-up and revitalization actions. Joint cleaning of beaches, forests, or trails can be not only a way to care for the environment but also a form of integration – whether through employee volunteering or local community initiatives.
Such activities can be combined with ecological education – workshops on circular economy, planting plants, building insect hotels. This provides a lasting effect and a real change in participants’ awareness.
Eco summer with One More Tree – what can we do together?
The One More Tree Foundation organizes and supports actions that help repair the footprint left by the holiday season:
- Cleaning beaches, forests, and tourist trails – quick effect and great satisfaction.
- Planting trees and plants in places where tourism has overly burdened the environment.
- Educational workshops for children, youth, and adults – about how to travel responsibly.
Projects connecting local residents and tourists – so we can take care together of the places we all love to visit.
Do you want your company or community to leave a good mark?
Organize with us a clean-up event or tree planting after the holiday season. Together we can make sure that holiday memories will be beautiful – also for nature.
Let’s do something good together – because summer can be clean if we only give it a chance.
