BESLOW
SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL
AND LIFE ZERO WASTE
A journey towards greater awareness: in this way Silvia tells us about her path towards a zero waste life and sustainable travel. BeSlow it is the blog where he vents all his creativity, and pushes other people to undertake this path.
Welcome to Easy Travel Hosting! Can you tell us a little about yourself, and how the BeSlow project was born?
Thank you so much for hosting me on Easy Travel Hosting! BeSlow was born from a long reflection that lasted almost ten years; the why? Essentially due to lack of courage and awareness.
To tell the truth, even when I started this adventure I was very unaware and, at times, I still am, but I feel I am on the right path less than a year after opening.
BeSlow essentially represents everything I am and is the first step towards realizing a long-held dream. In life I am a travel designer, that is, I create personalized tourist packages in a sustainable way and using the storytelling technique.
Furthermore, thanks to the blog and the digital skills acquired in these months of self-study, I am responsible for the digitalisation of an SME in my area. Returning to BeSlow, it is currently the space in which I give vent to all my creativity and talk about my path towards a more conscious and sustainable life, trying to influence more and more people to do the same.
Northern European countries have very advanced recycling systems, and recycling, for the user, is a spontaneous act, which is part of culture just as drinking a glass of wine at the table can be for us. In your opinion, why is recycling something that is catching on so slowly in Italy?
According to my point of view and according to the perception that I was able to have by traveling further North without going too far, even simply in Northern Italy respect for nature is a duty, because we realize that it cannot be completely dominated by man.
Therefore, we try to adopt circular economy systems, Tentino comes to mind for example. In other parts of Italy this awareness is culturally lacking, because rigor and respect are two elements that are gradually weakening.
In addition to this, I believe that the concept of "everything must come from above" is predominant in common thinking. Which means that the majority sits back and waits for others to act in their place, so as not to leave their comfort zone.
The reasons are many, we must also think about a historical and social factor, there are currently at least 4 generations alive, of which more or less 2 do not realize how harmful the purchase of non-recyclable products is for the other 2 generations, who are starting to perceive the risk.
The problem? These 2 "older" generations have much greater purchasing power than the other 2 younger ones and are therefore economically dominant, so companies act accordingly.
In the North, awareness is more widespread. Therefore, systems such as the collection of plastic bottles (classic empty for full) have been adopted massively for years now. The topic is truly vast in the sense that I don't believe there is a single motivation, but a set of factors that slow down the massive development of awareness of recycling and sustainability in Italy.
Now let's talk about travel! A place that changed your conception of the world, after which everything was different?
If I'm honest, I haven't done much travel around the world, because I've always tried to learn how people lived in their country, so I've always stopped for several months to work or study.
Certainly the first trip of this kind at the age of 16 was strong, because I catapulted myself to work in Austria in a suburb of Vienna, with a couple of months of studying the German language behind me.
After the first week I literally fell in love with this way of traveling and I continued along this line until 2019. 2018-2019 was the strongest and longest trip I've ever done, same method here too, but in Spain, in Madrid, in a metropolis, coming from a small country village and leaving a relationship that had just begun at home.
Without forgetting that I didn't speak a word of Spanish and they didn't speak a word of English, fortunately the gestures were international and we understood each other. I think this might have been the most important trip after which everything was different.
But I repeat, every trip has its own story and its own emotion because there is a piece of life, they have never been about disconnecting and going on holiday, but a real catapult into another language and culture in which to rebuild your life.
What do you do to make your life greener?
I started by following several profiles on Instagram of girls who really only dealt with that and who had studies related to the topic. In this way I started to inform myself, then I looked for an organic shop in my city and I began to get an idea of the products, the different materials used for packaging and I began to test the products.
At the moment in the kitchen I have tried the self-produced detergent, with which I was very happy, I have eliminated all the plastic bottles and replaced them with the filter jug, I prefer loose vegetables in winter and those from the garden in summer.
Obviously, I try to take products in bulk or packaged in cardboard or glass to cook at home as much as possible when possible. For my beauty routine I use solid products (shampoo, conditioner and facial soap) or bioplastic, made from sugar paper, therefore completely biodegradable.
Of course, there are still many steps that I want to take towards a zero waste lifestyle because I believe that it is not just a current trend, but that it must be a lifestyle adopted by the majority of us to preserve the biodiversity of the planet that hosts us.
Easy Travel Hosting thanks Silvia so much for taking part in our interview and talking to us about her choice and life path, totally in tune with us.
If you want to find out more, you can follow her on the site by clicking here. And on social media too!
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