It was on a trip to Turkey in September 2018 with her husband and friends that Mumbaikar Khushbu Merchant first took stock of the amount of plastic she was carrying with her. They ended up using and throwing a lot of plastic bottles for water, cups and forks too. She explains, “The usage of water bottles was major. I remember on this one day between the six of us, we had close to 10 different sizes of plastic bottles that we had used.”

While she was always conscious about her environment footprint locally, where she avoided using plastic bags at the neighbourhood vegetable shop, this was different. “I realised I need to take major steps towards practicising sustainability while travelling,” she adds. From her next trip, which was to Germany, she started carrying a foldable cutlery set and good quality water bottles labelled with names and that was the beginning of her sustainable journey.