You might discover one thing’s slightly completely different subsequent time you order a chilly drink on a Southwest Airways flight.
As an alternative of plastic, your beverage will arrive in a cup made primarily of bamboo and will likely be served with a birchwood stir stick sporting the provider’s iconic “Coronary heart” branding.
Here is what it seems like:
The brand new stir stick is made solely of birchwood that’s licensed by the Forest Stewardship Council, a nonprofit group that makes use of impartial events to confirm that forests are managed responsibly. The brand new cup is made out of 93% non-plastic supplies, with a pulp mix comprised of 75% bamboo and 25% paper, and likewise has a polyethylene lining. Bamboo is taken into account a “quickly renewable materials” by the U.S. Inexperienced Constructing Council (a corporation devoted to minimizing local weather impacts) as a result of it reaches maturation in three to 5 years.
Southwest stated it performed “strong testing” on the gadgets with each clients and staff — switching from plastic to bamboo cups and birchwood stir sticks will not make your water, soda or different chilly drinks style completely different.
The Dallas-based airline additionally says that swapping to bamboo and birchwood cups will assist it scale back its use of inflight single-use plastics by greater than 1.5 million kilos per yr. This can assist the corporate make progress in the direction of its bigger sustainability targets.
“We’re excited to proceed collaborating with our suppliers to work towards our purpose of totally eliminating, the place possible, single-use plastics from inflight service by 2030,” stated Helen Giles, Southwest’s managing director of environmental sustainability, in a press release.
Southwest’s Nonstop to Internet Zero technique, which was introduced in 2023, established the airline’s purpose of becoming a member of the bigger aviation neighborhood in reaching internet zero carbon emissions by 2050. The corporate’s 2025 targets are to scale back single-use plastics generated by inflight service by 50% (by weight) and to avoid wasting 50 million incremental gallons of jet gasoline.
Moreover, in July 2024, Southwest beforehand lowered its use of sunshine plastic by switching the wrapping for its serviette bundles from plastic to a paper sheath product of 100% post-consumer recycled supplies, totally eliminating using plastic on this particular merchandise.
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Within the coming months, Southwest plans to introduce a brand new select-a-snack providing on flights to and from Hawaii to lower meals waste and scale back single-use plastic packaging by a minimum of 18,000 kilos yearly.
Southwest is taking a look at different locations to additional scale back using single-use plastics inflight.
In response to the provider’s 2023 Southwest One Report, whereas 75% of the onboard single-use plastics had been generated from cups and stir sticks (now gone), in addition to straws and plastic snack packaging, about 25% of the plastic the airline is attempting to get rid of comes from single-use wine and liquor bottles. The airline has additionally made a dedication to enhance its recycling program by (amongst different actions) “training consistency” relating to onboard recycling, bettering its uniform recycling program and supporting a wide range of packages and organizations that upcycle the airline’s leather-based seat covers.
Southwest, in fact, is not the one airline engaged on methods to achieve its sustainability targets. On Nationwide Reuse Day (Oct. 20), Alaska Airways examined a reusable cup program on a round-trip flight between Seattle and Minneapolis. The airline eradicated plastic cups on flights as of January 2023.
