It’s always stunned me, the amount of trash airline passengers produce. And how disgustingly, rudely sloppy they are, stuffing used cans and tissues and bits of plastic wrap and old newspapers so far down in the seat pocket that you’d need a slim jim (you know, the cheap bit of metal that a tow truck driver charges you fifty bucks to get into the car you’ve locked yourself out of) to dig it all out. And scattering food and more plastic and random cans and plastic water bottles all over the floor. In the past I’ve been staggered more by the level if piggishness people show when they’re traveling, but in the last couple years it’s just the sheer amount of waste airline passengers produce that gets me.
Think about it. On a transatlantic flight you get cans of drinks (or bottles, if so inclined and the airline offers it) plus plastic cups to pour the liquid in, as many mini water bottles as you want, more plastic cups for that, snack trays wrapped in hard plastic containers with crinkly plastic encasing plastic cutlery and a sandwich (that might not be plastic but tastes close enough), and then you’re offered plastic cups of juice or water to keep you hydrated throughout the night.
Is the airline industry trying to singlehandedly keep the chemical – plastics – petroleum industry afloat?
Patrick Smith of Ask the Pilot blog has been noticing the same thing: “Take the number of trays, cups, soda cans, snack wrappers and discarded reading material produced during the average flight and multiply it by the 40,000 or so daily commercial departures around the world,” he says. “In the U.S. nearly 2 million people fly daily. That’s a minimum of 2 million plastic cups alone, just in this country.”
Considering that there are states and cities in the US trying to ban plastic grocery bags because of their environmental and aesthetic impacts, this amount of unnecessary plastic trash seems insane. On a recent flight to New York, Smith points out, “each passenger got a lidded plastic tray and, even though the small roll-up sandwich could easily be eaten by hand, a plastic knife and fork wrapped in a plastic envelope. Forgive me for not having a scale on hand, but my snack consisted of approximately 7 ounces of petroleum-derived plastic and 3 ounces of actual food.”
It seems that Virgin Atlantic is one of the few airlines with a dedicated mission to reduce and recycle the bottles, cans, and newspapers used in the cabin every flight. Some American carriers have recycling programs, but they are hampered by actual places to dump the recyclables at each end of a flight.
It’s time for airlines, as well as travelers, to remember the first precept of environmental consumption: reduce. Then reuse. Then recycle. You do not have permission to give yourself an earth-happy, self-righteous glowing feeling if you’ve used ten hard plastic cups per flight, no matter how many times they’re recycled.
And for a start, don’t be a slob. You can bloody well pick up after yourselves.
(Tip: Due to the presence of nasty toxins in plastic water bottles, such as pthalates and bisphenol-A, I gave up using them a while back. It’s cheaper and easier and better for your health to carry a lightweight lined aluminum bottles like a Sigg and refill it from fountains. After all, much of that bottled water comes direct from municipal sources anyway. Why pay extra for it?)
