If you’ve ever thought about how many plastic straws are utilized on flights each year…well, it’s quite a bit. In 2019 Alaska Airlines gave out 22 million plastic straws, swizzle sticks and citrus picks, each are extremely lightweight to recycle, and often land in landfills, oceans, and also other waterways. Luckily, that’s information on to vary — at least about this airline. Starting on June 16, Alaska Airlines can be the main US airline to ban all plastic straws and citrus picks in lounges and also on flights, replacing them with white birch stir sticks and non-plastic, marine-safe straws. They should also replace most of their 32-46 ounce juice boxes this year with easily-recyclable aluminum cans.
This isn’t the very first time Alaska Airlines has led the eco-friendly charge while in the airline industry. In 2009, Alaska replaced its in-flight beer bottles with recyclable aluminum cans making more efficient make use of plastic cups by refilling them, rather then swapping them out choosing ones during beverage service. 12,000 plenty of recyclable materials were collected by Alaska’s flight attendants over the last eight years. That’s loads of beers being consumed at 33,000 feet.
While Alaska Airlines may be over the forefront with the eco-conscious movement in america alone, it’s not the only airline worldwide working to make a change. Both Fiji and Thai Airways want to reduce single-use plastic on their flights, and budget airline Ryanair has promised to get plastic-free by 2023. In other spheres of travel, London City Airport was the first airport to ban plastic straws, Royal Caribbean has pledged to go plastic-free on its cruises, and Vanuatu, a small island nation inside the Pacific, is getting a big splash when it is the 1st country on the earth to outlaw plastic straws.
Don’t a little surprised at the same time ever more airlines adopting eco-friendly trends, particularly when you compromise set for those in-flight cocktails.
