Plastics Crisis: Less Plastic when Traveling

On my recent road trip to Texas, I managed to avoid more single use plastic than ever before – and part of the rationale was to reduce my risk for encountering cyclospora!

For my breakfast on the road, I stopped at a travel plaza for muffin that was in a case (unwrapped) and retrieved with tissue paper rather than a piece of plastic. They had plastic bags, but I didn’t get one…just held it in the tissue while I paid for it! It was not a place I had stopped at previously but ,now that I know I can get breakfast plastic free there, it has become my stop of choice on subsequent trips to Texas.

I opted to not buy a packaged salad to eat at a rest stop further down the road since they inevitably have iceberg and/or romaine lettuce and come in a plastic clamshell. I stopped at Chili’s for chicken fajitas instead. It cost more and took a little more time….but there was a lot less single use plastic!

As I had done previously – I took some food with me for my evening meal and brought my own bowl to hold the breakfast the hotel provided. On one of the mornings the person monitoring the breakfast service commented favorably about my bowl while I put a little pepper on my scrambled eggs.

On the way home I stopped at the usual diner for lunch – this time getting steamed veggies rather than salad (again to avoid cyclospora). The only single use plastic was a straw (since I wasn’t fast enough to decline it).

I am getting more adept at avoiding plastic when I travel. I hope more businesses that cater to people traveling will reduce their use of plastics….making it easier in the future.