My resolve to live a zero-waste lifestyle has been strengthened by our eco-honeymoon to Borneo, which was yet another life-altering experience. I chose to visit three ecotourism projects. It is always difficult to find safe drinking water in Asia, but we took our water bottle with us and chose the right service providers who practice sustainable travel so that, with a little effort, we were able to use almost no plastic during our trip.

However, our stay on Libaran Island, where a sustainable turtle conservation project was launched ten years ago, really stood out to us. The shore is washed daily with tons of plastic from the tides, despite the community’s and the project’s significant efforts to clean the beaches and creatively repurpose plastic. It was quite shocking to walk on a carpet of plastic that almost obscured our view of the beach below.

I experienced contrasting feelings of sadness and rage when confronted with this global issue in person, which quickly gave way to determination: to reduce our use of plastic as much as possible. When confronted with significant issues, we may at times feel powerless, but we ought to be aware that even minute adjustments can actually have an impact!