Green Travel Tips from the EPA

Road trips help develop an appreciation for the land

It's summertime and after a long and challenging stretch of lockdowns, online work and schooling, people are finally on the move again! Yay! So we did some research on how best to minimize our impact, and even help the environment when we travel.

An excellent resource for learning how to reduce waste in our daily lives is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Below is a list of EPA Travel Tips that we found very helpful and wanted to pass on to you.

Happy Travels!

Trips and Vacations

• When visiting beaches and parks, be sure to take back everything you bring in, so that you can leave places unlittered and undisturbed.

• To pass the time on long drives or rainy vacation days, bring scrap paper for drawing and games.

• Hot summer days make you thirsty. Be sure to recycle your used drink containers. Consider putting a filter on your water tap and refilling bottles with the filtered water. Instead of buying many small drink bottles, buy drink mixes in bulk and fill your reusable bottles.

• Share the ride and the road. Public transportation and carpooling reduce pollution.

DO NOT OVERPACK CANS! It could blow into the ocean.

Car Maintenance

• Make sure used motor oil is taken to a recycling center. Dumping oil down storm drains or on the ground can contaminate groundwater.

• Purchase extended life anti-freeze for your car. When it’s time to change it out, take your used anti-freeze to a recycling center. Call 1-800-CLEANUP or visit Earth 911's website to find the recycling center nearest to you.

• Take used or damaged car batteries to auto stores that stock or repair lead-acid batteries for safe disposal. The batteries contain toxic amounts of lead and acid, and should not be thrown out with your regular trash.

• Return used car tires to retailers or wholesalers that recycle or retread them. Tires are banned from most landfills, and illegally dumped tires become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other pests.

• Make sure your car has a clean air filter—a dirty air filter can increase your car’s fuel consumption by as much as 10 percent.

• Instead of sending your car to a low-value car to a landfill, offer it to a local charity. The gift will be tax-deductible.

Source: epa.gov "Reducing Waste: What You Can Do"