“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list”. More and more people live by these poetic words of Susan Sontag. Travel bloggers have become a thing, the Instagram #traveling tag is used over 19.000.000 times and companies like sprs.me are sprouting from the ground. It can be said that travelling is becoming more and more popular.

Personally, I am a big fan of travelling. As a Dutch exchange student in Singapore, this is my very first time being a tourist in another continent. Before this year, I could count the times I have set food in a plane on one hand and had mostly visited tourist-focussed areas (read: sun, sea, beach). This year I experienced many culture shocks. Many of which, I could place under the umbrella term of sustainability.

I realised how Netherlands is doing quite well in some aspects, and how it is definitely needing some development in other aspects. I realised for instance that it is not yet as usual in Singapore to separate your trash, often there is just one trash can and if there are multiple options, it is regularly lacking paper. Next to that, in any grocery store you go, they are very keen on giving plastic bags. Bananas? Not one, but two plastic bags! Not to talk about the air conditioning that is producing artic-like temperatures. Another thing that struck me as a surprise is the amount of plastic used in supermarket products; after I undid a box of tea of its plastic, I opened it to find each tea bag has a separate plastic cover. WHY? But wait, there is more, I did not even mention the non-use of reusable plastic containers and reusable plastic water bottles. On campus, they are like the big five in the jungle, very rare and hard to find. I am guessing the Tupperware trend has yet to come to Asia.

Now the biggest shock so far has happened to me in Bali, a place I imagined to have the cleanest and beautiful beaches of the world. Beautiful, yes. Clean? Unfortunately, I experienced with my own eyes how tourism is destroying this little piece of heaven on earth.

So what does this have to do with this blog, A Polluted World? As you might have noticed, my interest do not only lay in travelling. I am also highly interested in sustainability.

A Polluted World was created to inform people like you and me about sustainable tourism. To encourage a sustainable lifestyle, even when on holidays.

“Take only memories, leave only footprints.” – Chief Seattle