REUSABLE CUPS ON AIRLINES?
If you have ever flown business class, you get a glass cup, so why can’t everybody on the plane get at least a reusable cup?
That is the question many airlines have been asking over the past 6 months as the war on waste movement has been growing.
Because Globelet is worlds leading reusable systems provider and has over 8 years experience washing and drying reusable packaging for major stadiums and events almost every company has reached out to us for a solution.
And we have one.
THESE ARE THE CHALLENGES OF REUSABLE CUPS ON AIRLINES
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How do you sort the cups from other waste? (No different to disposables)
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How do you wash them?
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How do you make them as cheap as disposables (Airlines are on tight margins)
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How do you make them as light on a disposable (Airlines are constantly trying to reduce weight to increase margin)
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How do you manage them on an international airport system where they have no control over the waste collection and laws prohibit everything but incineration?
These are the major issues of reusable cups on flights.
When it comes to washing reusable cups, we took all the current disposable cups used on Air New Zealand’s domestic flights in New Zealand and tested them through our washing systems.
The results were incredible. We can take the current disposable PP cups from the domestic flights, wash them, dry them, and restack them and they are ready to be used again on the next flight.
This is Air New Zealand’s plastic water cups from the airline's domestic flights. We took this cup, put it through our washing and drying systems and it came out like new after the wash.
The cup is the same disposable PP cup used on the flight, and we can wash it for the same price of them producing a new disposable cup.
The result is that with our Better Future Factories gearing up to wash million of cups a year, we can transform entire industries that have been sucked into using disposable cups and throwing them away, to implementing the same system and returning them to us for washing.
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The issue in the industry right now, is people have been convinced that reusables are too hard to wash, and so settle for compostable packaging from Taiwan even through all the data and studies say that compostables aren't better.
Let’s hope that in 5 years time, all airlines are using reusable cups on their planes :)
Well done Qantas for implementing a zero waste flight and Air NZ, for leading the way on removing single-use plastic.
