Airlines are looking for ways to be more sustainable—partly by getting eco-unfriendly plastics out of their cabins in innovative ways. Dallas-based Southwest just made some small but very noticeable moves to do just that, by making adjustments in items every passenger is likely to come in contact with on a flight.
The discount carrier has introduced a new bamboo cup for inflight cold beverages and a wood stir stick with the carrier’s iconic “heart” branding. Both items are part of Southwest’s stated goal “to eliminate, where feasible, single-use plastics from inflight service by 2030.”
Reducing 1.5M pounds of single-use plastics annually
Though those moves may sound small, they add up to a lot. Southwest said it expects the new items to reduce its inflight single-use plastics “by more than 1.5 million pounds annually.”
Made from 93% non-plastic materials, the new cold cup is features a pulp blend consisting of 75% bamboo and 25% paper and a polyethylene (PE) lining. The airline noted that the U.S. Green Building Council considers bamboo a “rapidly renewable material” because it reaches maturity for harvest in three to five years.
That little stick? It’s made from 100% FSC5-certified birch wood, the airline said.
The moves come three months after Southwest transitioned to a paper overwrap for its napkins made from 100% post-consumer recycled materials, “fully eliminating plastic” from that service item. The overwrap is made from FSC or PEFC5-certified materials, the airline said.
In the months to come, Southwest is making another change on flights to and from Hawaii. A new select-a-snack offering” on those flights is anticipated to decrease food waste and reduce single-use plastic packaging by at least 18,000 pounds annually.
“We expect our new bamboo cold cup, wood stir stick, and other initiatives to exceed our goal to reduce plastics from inflight service by 50% by weight by 2025, and we’re excited to continue collaborating with our suppliers to work toward our goal of fully eliminating, where feasible, single-use plastics from inflight service by 20306,” Helen Giles, Managing Director of Environmental Sustainability at Southwest, said in a statement.
“It’s been a year of work since we announced our Nonstop to Net Zero strategy, including our initiatives to tackle single-use plastics in our inflight service,” Giles added. “Today’s announcement celebrates the hard work and dedication of many teams across Southwest to meet these goals.”
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