Today, Alaska Airlines
launches its #FillBeforeYouFly initiative — aimed at rallying passengers
and employees to bring their own water bottle and fill it before they board, to
reduce the use of single-use plastics inflight. This is the latest in the
airline’s sustainability efforts to reduce inflight waste per passenger going to
landfills by 70 percent by 2020.
“Our ultimate goal is to work together with our guests and employees to improve
the health of our water by reducing plastic use,” said Diana Birkett Rakow,
Alaska Airlines' VP of external relations. “Land, water and animals are
incredibly special parts of the places we live and fly — and we’re in this for
the long term.
“If just 10 percent of our guests brought their own pre-filled water bottle
when they fly and choose reusables, it could save more than 700,000 plastic
water bottles and 4 million plastic cups per year. That’s a big lift.”
Plastic bottles are among the top five most common items found in beach
cleanups
around the world; and according to the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation,
there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.
Cleaning up beauty's ugly impacts
Join us at SB'24 San Diego as Victor Casale — co-founder of Pact Collective and co-founder and CEO of MOB Beauty — shares insights from ongoing collaborations with materials innovators to create fully compostable, refillable, plastic-free, and easier-to-recycle packaging alternatives for beauty and wellness products.
For its latest initiative, Alaska Airlines is partnering with Lonely
Whale and sustainable drinkware company
MiiR — both making huge strides in reducing plastic
waste — and the nonprofit Bonneville Environmental
Foundation (BEF). The airline will plant a tree for
every passenger who brings a pre-filled water bottle onto their flight and posts
a photo to social media tagging @AlaskaAir with the hashtag #FillBeforeYouFly.
This is part of BEF’s initiative to plant 1 million trees on the West Coast of
the US, to improve the environment and restore habitats for local fish and
wildlife — and through this partnership, Alaska customers can help make this
happen.
"The rivers and streams that fuel the West Coast are polluted, but planting
trees in the right places can help reduce pollution and restore a healthy
habitat," said BEF Chief Development Officer Val Fishman. "Alaska Airlines
is setting an industry standard with their commitment to supporting
water-quality programs. With today's #FillBeforeYouFly customer activation,
they are serving an important role driving awareness about widespread water
issues among customers, while also helping to put actual trees in the ground to
ensure the cool, clean water needed for habitats to thrive.”
Fishman added that Alaska is the first airline to balance its water footprint,
by being the Charter Sponsor of Promise the
Pod — an initiative to restore habitat to save
the declining population of orcas of the West Coast.
In 2018, Alaska Airlines became the first airline to replace single-use, plastic
stir straws and citrus picks with sustainable alternatives as part of its
#StrawlessSkies
initiative,
in partnership with Lonely Whale. Through #FillBeforeYouFly, Alaska Airlines is
taking this a step further, aligning with Lonely Whale’s popular
#HydrateLike campaign, inspiring individuals
and companies alike to rethink reliance on single-use plastic bottles.
From the millions of gallons of fuel saved to the tiny plastic straws that were
removed last year, Alaska Airlines has a long track record of flying greener.
Since it started auditing its recycling efforts in 2010, Alaska has reduced
per-passenger waste going to landfills by 65 percent, essentially cutting waste
in half. In the last nine years, flight attendants captured over 15,000 tons of
recyclable materials, about the same weight as 320 Boeing 737-900ERs.
“We know this is a resource-intensive
business,
with many stakeholders involved in the journey,” Birkett Rakow said. “While
we’ve made progress, there’s a long road ahead of us. We’re working hard behind
the scenes and along our supply chain to come up with solutions to reduce waste,
adopt sustainable practices and eliminate single-use plastics inflight. Change
takes time; we value the collective impact our customers and employees can make
today.”
To further reduce its environmental impact,
Alaska Airlines also recently replaced bottled beer with aluminum cans, which
are lighter and easier to recycle. The airline has also been exploring
alternatives to plastic water bottles and cups for several months, in its
ongoing effort to reduce single-use plastics.
#FillBeforeYouFly follows nicely on San Francisco International Airport
(SFO)’s latest sustainability initiative: As of August 20, all shops,
restaurants and vending machines throughout SFO are banned from selling plastic
water
bottles;
and almost 100 water-bottle filling stations have been added throughout the
airport.
While #FillBeforeYouFly wouldn’t work in all parts of the world — in
Argentina, for example, passengers are subjected to secondary screenings
before they board, during which they’re forced to empty any liquids they may
have procured at the airport after their initial security screening [Ed note:
I’ve never understood the logic of this; if anyone has any insight, please
comment below!] — it will be interesting to see the impacts of the initiative
on Alaska’s flights throughout North America, Mexico and Costa Rica;
and whether other airlines jump on board.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Sep 12, 2019 9am EDT / 6am PDT / 2pm BST / 3pm CEST