BY Ben Iaquinto
Backpackers are often associated with behaviour such as public drunkenness. However, post Covid-19, the face of backpackers began changing as people sought to be one with nature, and taking care of the environment became a priority. This translated to shared accommodation and other ways to encourage sustainability in tourism.
In fact, backpackers provide interesting insights into how people can act in more sustainable ways. Research reveals the many ways backpackers act sustainably – often without meaning to.
This research reveals sustainable actions on environmental issues such as reducing resource consumption and waste. It shows how backpackers can help improve our economic sustainability, for example by filling labour shortages or spending money in ways that benefit local communities.
It also highlights socially sustainable actions performed by backpackers, who act in ways that show respect for local communities.
So here are seven sustainability lessons we can learn from backpackers.
1. They carpool regularly
Backpackers are into carpooling because it lets them achieve two of their goals – saving money and having new experiences. Scroll through any car-sharing forum and you will find backpackers. Hostels all over Australia have noticeboards filled with ride-share requests.
So rather than taking domestic flights, which are expensive, three or four backpackers will come together to rent a car or a camper van. This helps to keep down the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their holiday.
It also forces them to drive through some fairly remote areas, places that don’t see a lot of visitors. Backpackers still need to purchase petrol, food and accommodation in these places, which provides a small boost to local economies.
While each backpacker’s spending is quite low, the combined effect of their small purchases is significant. When backpackers arrive in their destination they drop off the camper van or sell their car to other backpackers looking to do the return journey, and the process repeats.
2. They don’t waste food
It has been reported that that tons of food goes to waste every year. All of the water needed to grow this food as well as the petrol used for harvesting, processing and transport is then also wasted.
But not so in backpacker hostels, where “free food” shelves are a common sight. Each hostel usually has one in the kitchen and one in the fridge. So when backpackers leave the hostel they (or hostel staff) put their leftover food on these shelves. As backpackers are on a tight budget, scouring the free food shelves is an easy way to save.
3. They’re not acquisitive
The amount of possessions backpackers can carry is strictly limited. They are forced to live for long periods carrying only what they can fit on their backs (or, increasingly, in their trolley cases). A backpacking holiday is a good way to learn that life without a lot of stuff isn’t so bad.
As over-consumption drives so many unsustainable practises, voluntarily reducing consumption and standards of living, as backpackers do, is potentially transformative.
4. They know how to share
Long before the “sharing economy” became a globally recognised phenomenon, backpackers were regularly sharing kitchen facilities, food, bedrooms and cars. Kitchens will have one or two stoves in hostels that accommodate dozens of people. Dorm rooms have one light and one ceiling fan and each hostel, no matter the size, will have one television.
When resources are shared like they are among backpackers, consumption goes down, greenhouse gas emissions are lowered and less waste is produced. Living in less space has been advocated by the “tiny house” movement as an affordable and environmentally sustainable housing option, but backpackers do it automatically.
5. They trust each other
Having to share bedrooms and kitchens and driving halfway across the country with a bunch of people you’ve just met might seem daunting, but for backpackers, it’s tolerated (even enjoyed) as part of the experience.
But what really makes it a functional arrangement is trust. Backpackers have to be able to trust the other backpackers they’re living with – people they have only just met – not to harm them in any way. Mutual trust provides social benefits because it helps keep a community together, and backpacking couldn’t function without it.
6. They want to respect cultural differences
While backpackers have a reputation for loud behaviour, it is important to look beyond the stereotype. Many backpackers want to demonstrate cultural respect. This was one way they could carry out socially sustainable actions. They actively demonstrate cultural respect and understanding.
7. They’re happy without luxuries
Backpackers don’t need to shower daily and are happy washing their clothes by hand. The cooking utensils, kitchen facilities, and bedding at many hostels in Australia are in various states of disrepair – but it doesn’t bother backpackers.
This is sustainable because it prolongs the life of these items. By not having to regularly replace kitchen and bedding products, hostels are able to reduce waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and water consumption associated with the manufacturing, transport, and disposal of these items.
So… should we all just become backpackers?
Well – probably not. At a global level, backpacking, like tourism in general, is unsustainable as it depends on long-haul flights and wealth discrepancies between developed and developing countries.
However at the local level, unlike other forms of tourism, backpacking provides many opportunities for the performance of sustainable practises and it is here that we can learn from backpackers.
While backpacking is not for everyone, it indicates that it is possible for sustainable practices to be integrated into people’s everyday lives with minimal effort and cost. It also shows how people used to highly consumptive lifestyles can act sustainably – even without knowledge of sustainability.
Ben Iaquinto is a PhD student, School of Geography, The University of Melbourne
Kathryn Williams is an Associate Professor in environmental psychology and Director, Office for Environmental Programs, The University of Melbourne.
This story was first publishes in theconversations.com, www.theconversations.com
