by Trey Granger

This story is part of Earth911’s “Green Eight” series, where we showcase eight ways to green your life in various areas.

Regardless of economic conditions, travel during November and December increases, often up to 23 percent during the Christmas and New Year’s breaks. Whether you’re visiting friends and family by plane, train or automobile, here’s eight ways to travel green this holiday season:

1. Ride the Rails . . . and Bus Routes

Wondering what’s the greenest form of travel? Actually, traveling by bus or train consumes the least amount of carbon per passenger. In the winter, travel by other means is subject to road closures and weather delays. Plus, trains and buses will usually drop you downtown for easier access to the city you’re visiting.

2. Enjoy Paperless Travel

No matter how you decide to travel, there is potential for lots of paper use. You’ve got tickets and boarding passes, baggage claim receipts and even directions to your lodging. But in this technological age, is all this paper necessary?

• Wait to print boarding passes at the airport, where less paper is used (and refuse the “ticket jacket” if offered).
• Enter important addresses into a portable GPS unit to take on your travel, so you won’t need to print directions.
• Ask if travel receipts can be emailed to you instead of printed (except luggage, of course).

3. Prepare Your Car

If you’re one of the 91 percent of people who opt for the holiday road trip, pre-trip car maintenance can optimize your gas mileage. This includes checking your motor oil and tire pressure, as well as removing unnecessary baggage that will weigh down your car. A 15-minute car preparation can help prevent a two-hour car breakdown in cold weather and more money spent on gas.

4. Reduce Airplane Waste

Think about how much waste you go through on an average flight. There’s peanut and food wrappers, aluminum soda and beer cans, disposable headphones, newspapers and magazines and the aforementioned paper travel documents. Other than the headphones and wrappers, it can all be recycled, and chances are your airport has recycling bins.

Keep this in mind before the flight attendant comes around asking for your trash. You can also bring your own headphones and packed lunch, or tuck your newspaper into the seat in front of you for the next passenger to read.

5. Monitor the Thermostat

News flash: winter weather is cold! Since you’re not footing the energy bill on vacation, it’s tempting to turn up the heat at a hotel or a friend’s house (which your buddy probably won’t appreciate). But over a year, two degrees of temperature increase equals 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. Consider a reasonable room temperature and request an extra blanket for your bed if you need it.

6. Recycle in Your Hotel

You would think that spending $3.00 for a soda at the hotel mini-bar would entitle you to a recycling bin for the can or bottle. Since this is unlikely, bring along a separate bag for recyclables (paper, metal, plastic) that you’re bound to use in the hotel room. Then use Earth911 to find nearby recycling locations on-the-go, or ask the hotel to recycle them for you when you check out.

7. Refill Travel Containers

Security measures and space requirements may have you traveling with compact containers for shampoo, toothpaste and other toiletries. Instead of continually buying new travel sizes at the store, refill the same compacts from a larger container prior to travel. For most liquids this can be accomplished with a funnel, and you’ll also save money by buying larger sizes.

8. Shop and Ship Online

You’re likely exchanging gifts at your holiday destination, so travel raises the important issue of how the gifts will arrive. Packing them in the car will reduce your gas mileage, and packing them in your checked luggage reduces space for clothes. Plus, if you use an extra bag, that will probably cost extra with your airline. If you decide to shop at your destination, you’ll likely face last-minute lines, higher prices and limited availability.

Shopping online lets you avoid much of this hassle, and believe it or not retailers have adapted some pretty good green shipping ideas. Plus, if your flight gets grounded because of snow, little Timmy will still get to open that bicycle on Christmas morning.
Source

read also related posts:

1. Cheapest International Travel – Ways to make International Travel Cheaper

   ***If you are planning an International trip with your family there is no reason for you to loose sleep on finding the cheapest international travel possible. Actually you can travel at a far lesser cost than what you might have imagined if follow certain best practices. These best practices will ensure the cheapest international travel [...]...

2. Where Can You Travel and Cruise During Winter?

   If winter is not an agreeable season for you, you should be able to come up with any excuse to escape it. Are you planning for spending some quality time with your family? If so, getting out during the winter holidays to have a family tour can be really fun! Or are you deciding to [...]...

3. EasyJet predicts winter air travel will fall

   Easy Jet is predicting that airlines will see a fall in demand of between two and four per cent this winter. The low-cost carrier said it expects its annual pre-tax profit to fall by ten per cent to £110 million as a consequence of the gloomy outlook. Strong growth in total revenue per seat that had been [...]...