Plus: We just witnessed the hottest decade
| | | | Hey readers, this week we took a closer look at all the food and plastic waste on airplanes....
Airlines are generating millions of tons of waste each year from both short and long haul flights. From plastic wrapping, containers, cutlery, and cups, to untouched meals, most of this waste is either thrown out or incinerated. It's the airline industry's other environmental issue, and we need to talk about it.
What do you think? We'd love to hear from you. Cheers, Laura and Kyla |
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| | | Boarding a plane, you settle into a seat, perhaps pulling a blanket and pillow from plastic wrapping to get more comfortable. You take the flimsy plastic headphones offered by the flight attendant, accept some juice in a plastic bottle, with a plastic glass and stirrer, and settle in to pick at the in-flight meal, arranged in an assortment of plastic containers, using the plastic cutlery you’ve unwrapped from its plastic packet.
It’s a familiar scene for those who fly, especially on long-haul flights, and it’s a big environmental problem. “The sheer amount of waste that comes from inside the planes is staggering,” says David (not his real name), a flight attendant for a regional carrier owned by American Airlines.
“Plastic cups, cans and boxed juices, some of them opened and maybe one cup poured from them then thrown out, plastic wrappers for snacks, cocktail straws, napkins ... and none of it recycled,” he tells HuffPost. “This all comes on top of the environmental impact the flight alone has.”
Around 4.3 billion passengers flew in 2018, up 6.1% from the previous year, and around 4.5 billion passengers flew in 2019. Passenger numbers will nearly double by 2037, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicts.
And as more people fly, the sheer scale of the waste they produce on board is becoming its own environmental disaster. |
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| | | | | We Just Lived Through The Hottest Decade On Record [HuffPost]
U.N. Biodiversity Plan Calls For Protecting 30% Of Earth By 2030 [HuffPost]
The Case For Never Demolishing Another Building [The Guardian]
How To Stop Freaking Out And Tackle Climate Change [The New York Times]
How People Came To Believe That Individual Choices Could Save The Earth [Grist] |
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