Living on the road has transformed my life in many ways including becoming more eco-friendly and conscious about my effect on the earth. Keep reading to learn my answer to the questions, Is living on the road eco-friendly?
By Bekah Whitney
There are many recent articles tackling the idea of the vanlifer and the environment. Are they ruining the planet or saving the planet or neither? While answering that question is not straightforward or simple, I want to share with you how living on the road has transformed my life into living in a much more eco-friendly manner. I also challenge you to think critically about your own usage and really think about where you are limiting your uses and where you can do better. So is living on the road eco-friendly? Let’s dive in.
Many van lifers, including us, purchased solar panels to power their tiny homes. This allows us to live off grid and still have most of the amenities of people who live in traditional homes. Depending on where one’s home is, they might run their homes completely off wind-power, which is greener than solar, or completely off coal power, which is very detrimental to the environment.
For me, switching to a solar powered home has severely lowered my carbon footprint on the planet, even when being pulled by a diesel truck.
Many van lifers don’t have the luxury of full heating systems and air conditioning. Instead we follow the weather. In winter we travel to warm places and in the summer we flock to the cool mountains. Much of the year, we do not use any temperature regulation. When we do, we primarily use our wood stove. According to Science.org’s article, Is wood a green source of energy? Scientists are divided, as the same suggests, scientists are divided on if burning wood is more “green”, but the amount we use our wood stove compared to the amount of times I used my heater while living in an apartment, even when I was on a college budget, is a huge difference and absolutely puts me in the positive.
Okay, here’s where you got me! A big contributor to the world’s carbon monoxide is vehicle exhaust. When I lived in an apartment in Colorado, I had multiple jobs. Most I had a short drive to, one I took the bus to, and the other I comminuted 40 minutes each way over a mountain pass. Some months, like when we were on the East Coast, we definitely drove more than I ever did in Colorado, or others, when we were driving small distances and staying in one place for a month, I didn’t have to refill my gas tank for weeks. Overall though, I have driven a lot more miles while living on the road than when I had an apartment.
This one came as a surprise to me because I had never paid a water bill. All the apartments I had ever lived in had water covered so my water usage was a number that I had never thought about until living on the road. Once you have a 10 gallon tank in your home (and 15 in the truck), though, you really start to notice. I quickly became shocked at how much water people, myself included, usually use while doing the dishes, using the bathroom, and taking regular showers.
When I do the dishes in my travel trailer, I heat a small amount of water in a pan and dip a sponge in when it needs to be re-wet and heated up. Then I fill the sink with all my dishes and let water trickle out of the faucet so that while I’m rinsing one thing, the other dishes are also using that water to be rinsed. Most people, my past self included, turn on the hot water and let it run while they hand wash and rinse each dish. If we did that we would go through 10 gallons of water a day just washing the dishes! There was a learning curve, but our low-water dishwashing routine is nailed down now.
Most in house toilets use water to flush down liquid and solid waste. Our composting toilets do not use any water significantly contributing to our and other van lifers’ low water usage.
Although this one I wish wasn’t as true, as I miss having a shower, I shower significantly less than when I lived in an apartment. I do however take long, luxurious showers when I visit the gym so I don’t think my shower-water usage has really decreased as much as I’d like to believe with the lack of a shower inside my home.
I would say for many vanlifers, their trash is probably about the same as when they lived in traditional housing. If someone did not live a “green” life previously they might have changed some habits, but personally my trash production has stayed about the same. The only thing that I do not do while living on the road is compost. Although I did not compost in my apartment, it is something I 100% want to do when I live in a house which puts me in the red for waste. Additionally, many of us full-timers have a smaller fridge than the average household so we tend to buy more efficiently packaged foods and beverages.
Eating sustainability is so important when it comes to being eco-friendly. When it comes to sustainable food, the two big ones are eating foods that did not have to travel very far and are grown or made in an earth-friendly manner. Purchasing local and sustainable foods is much easier when you live in one place. You can visit farmers markets, learn which brands are local to that area, or even grow your own! Although I try as I might to follow these guidelines, I believe if I lived in one place, I would be able to create a more sustainable routine around purchasing local foods and eating sustainably.
One large factor that I believe makes Living on the Road eco-friendly for me is the idea of living minimally. I don’t buy items I might only use a few times, clothes for a special occasion, or something that is currently trendy because I don’t have space for any excess. I didn’t live in excess particularly intensely when I lived in an apartment, but I have noticed a huge shift in buying quality products that bring me joy and that can last years if not a lifetime instead of the cheapest option.
Hi! I’m Bekah, but you can call me Beks, all my friends do! I travel full-time in a tiny home on wheels that my partner, Sawyer, and I built from a cargo trailer shell in 2019. We started out in beautiful Colorado and have been all over the United States over the years. This space is designed to inspire and guide the nature obsessed nomad, weekend warrior, and future roadlifer. I’m so excited you’re here!
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For me, living on the road is a way more eco-friendly lifestyle than living in an apartment was. I hope to take the lessons I have learned about water usage and energy and keep applying them to my life in the future.
I would love for you all to share in the comments below if your lives have become more or less eco-friendly since you got on the road, or if you are looking forward to creating a more eco-friendly life. Thank you all for reading and I can’t wait to hear what you all thought!
We wanted a watercraft for a long time, but didn’t quite know what to pull the trigger on. We wanted something that was durable and folded up nice and small. After watching videos of a jeep driving over the kayak and hit it with a hammer, we knew it was the one for us!
If you don’t already have a hammock, you really need to get on it! The Eno is a lightweight, packable, and durable hammock perfect for anyone living on the road. We have a single nest because neither of us seem to want to be in the hammock at the same time, but they do make a Double Nest if you are looking to cuddle up with your significant other in it.
Listen, everyone with photos of their van door wide open has flies. Adding a screen door was an absolute game-changer for us, plus it is attached through velcro so that you can easily remove it when you are ready to take those idyllic photos. If you haven’t hit the road yet, just get one. If you already have, this is the answer to your fly problem, you’re welcome.
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