Tag: packing

Road Trips

I’m a big fan of road trips, and yet I’ve never actually gone on a real road trip myself. How is that possible?

Growing up, we’d make a 3-hour trip to St. Louis at least once a year to see the Cardinals play and visit the STL Zoo. I vividly remember those small little weekend excursions to the city. We would always pack up our suitcases, a few pillows to rest our heads on in the car, and whatever handheld video game system we had at the time (likely GameBoy Colors). And within the first 30 minutes, we would undoubtedly stop at some gas station for beef jerky, sodas, and candy boxes.

While I know I reminisce on the trips simply because I was young and innocent and with my parents, I really do know that I’d absolutely love to travel the US by car to invoke the same sense of childlike wonder and pure fun experienced riding in a car with friends. It would certainly help to be able to switch off driving with everyone, to the point that it wouldn’t be taxing for anyone to drive so long as we switched shifts often enough.

The other part about road tripping is how cost effective it can be with multiple people. If you’re taking a van or SUV with a few friends and everyone can fit their gear in, gas is split amongst the group, and so would camping costs if you pulled over at a KOA for the evening. From there, it’s just setting up camp, hanging out, sleeping, and getting on the road again.

While I may not opt to take some candy boxes along at this age, I definitely would still grab a few sticks of jerky along with a six pack for camping.

I know it’s cliche, but at some point I really have to take a trip out west with a handful of friends and just rough it for a week or two. It’s the best way to take on such a road trip, being able to stop anywhere you like, sightsee, camp anywhere, eat whatever, and honestly save a heck of a lot more money than if you were to do it with only one other person or if you were to fly to a specific spot.

The more I write about this, the more inspired I am to get something planned with a handful of friends for this summer. I know it’s not always easy for people to take off work at this age, but if we could make it work, it would be a trip of a lifetime.

Plastic and How it Impacts businesses 

Plastic is something that has started to be phased out in certain places. For example, Canada did put a ban on plastics, and plenty of places in the US are actually regulating the production of plastic bags, in an attempt to make it more eco-friendly. It’s important to understand how it can affect your business, and what you can do to be ready. 

The Banning of single-use plastics 

There is actually a banning of single-use plastics, and Canada is trying to prepare for this, by the time 2025 ends. 

They’re trying to ban the following: 

  • Food packaging with bad plastics 
  • Plastic bags at checkout 
  • Plastic cutlery 
  • Plastic stirring sticks 
  • Plastic beverage carriers 
  • Plastic straws 

They are also including other plastics too, including polystyrenes, polyvinyl, chloride, carbon black plastic, and oxo degradable plastics. 

There are a few exceptions to this. 

They include the following: 

  • Garbage and compost bags 
  • Plastics used for transit and those that are in transit 
  • Single-use straws for needs that are essential 

The US is getting onto this as well, and California, Hawaii, and New York have already banned plastic bags, or fees on these. There are a few exemptions, especially those plastics which are reusable plastics that a person can use. 

The Effects of This 

This is going to impact a lot of different places, especially different industries’ throughout north America and other places. 

Some places this will impact include: 

  • Ecommerce 
  • Retail 
  • Restaurants 
  • Foods 

The regulation of this is basically a big initiative from the government to phase out all of the plastic waste. 

A list of restaurants and stores are going to have to get some incentives and make some changes and adjustments to offer alternatives that are eco-friendly for this as well. 

The industry is still changing, offering different solutions that’ll make it more effective. 

Both have started to shift into alternatives that are eco-friendly, and more sustainable. 

The alternatives 

For businesses that are looking for alternatives to the plastic packaging, they may wonder what they can provide. 

This is something that some businesses have already started, as it has started to be phased into different kinds of packaging. 

Some of these alternatives include the following: 

  • Non-woven PP bags 
  • Paper bags 
  • LDPE bags 
  • Cotton bags 
  • Kraft paper boxes 
  • Bamboo straws 
  • Corrugated carriers 

These are all still being worked on, but this is something that a lot of people are starting to like. While single-use plastics do have their own drawbacks, there are a lot of people who are struggling to make the changes needed to make this possible. The alternatives do have the major drawbacks of them being expensive, but the alternatives do outweigh the different effects that this may have on the environment and whatnot too. there is a lot of people that ban plastic in north America, allowing for the switch to be made to businesses, offering more sustainability too. 

there are also a lot of different exemptions that are used here and are used under bans that are local and regulations. 

Whether this will make a difference only time will tell, but there is a chance that this can fix a lot of the major plastic crisis that we have going on. 

The change to this is one that a lot of people are going to have to get used to, as it’s not easy to work with, but there are a lot of benefits to be had when using these alternatives for your business Tas well.