Air France to eliminate 210 million single-use plastic items in 2019

It’s the end of the road for plastic cutlery, cups, stirrers onboard beginning with this year’s World Environment Day as  passengers on Air France flight AF378 from Paris-Charles de Gaulle to Detroit were offered products made of bio-based materials instead of single-use plastic items usually distributed on board, in keeping with airline rules and health regulations.

The airline which has  announced its decision to eliminate 1,300 tons of single-use plastic has also promised to eliminate 210 million single-use plastic items by the end of 2019 which will be replaced by sustainable alternatives on all flights.

The figure represents 100 million plastic cups to be replaced with paper cups and 85 million plastic cutlery items to be replaced with products made from bio-based materials and packaging just as 25 million plastic stirring sticks will be replaced with wooden stirrers.

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Since November 2018, Air France had replaced the plate and cutlery set used for the second meal on long-haul flights with a “BON APPETIT” bag.

According to the airline, by the end of the year, these innovations will result in the elimination of 1,300 tons of plastic.

The airline since 2015 no longer supplies plastic drinking straws on board, representing a reduction of 1.3 million plastic items.

Air France while declaring its commitment to reducing its environmental footprint in order to offer its customers a responsible travel experience and acts on a daily basis to limit the impact of its operations, said it has set itself three major objectives to meet this challenge.

The three major objectives include plan to reduce and offset its CO2 emissions, reduce, recycle and reprocess its waste and also reduce the noise footprint of its operations.

The actions carried out by the Air France group since 2011 have already made it possible to reduce its CO2 emissions per passenger by 20% and to reach the 2020 target by 2018.