The airline has said that all Emirates flights will ‘soon’ be plastic straw-free…

After Dubai Airports recently announced that they have pledged to eliminate single-use plastic from the majority of businesses by January 1 2020, Emirates has followed suit. The airline released a statement committing to replacing plastic straws, plastic swizzle sticks and stirrers with eco-friendly alternatives by the end of 2019.

The plastic bags used for in-flight purchases will also be replaced with paper versions. The result of these initiatives aims to remove an estimated 81.7 million single-use plastic items from landfill each year.

Emirates revealed that it regularly collects feedback and suggestions from its cabin crew, in order to suggest ways of reducing the amount of plastic on-board. One initiative included segregating large plastic bottles to be recycled in Dubai and the rest of the world, in order to divert approximately 150,000 plastic bottles from landfill each month.

Since 2017, the airline has also been recycling plastic bottles to make its ecoThread blankets. Each blanket is made from 28 recycled plastic bottles, and soon Emirates will have used 88 million recycled plastic bottles to create them.

Eco-friendly paper straws have already been implemented on some flights, with the intention for all Emirates flights to ‘soon be plastic straw-free’.

Earlier in the year, Abu Dhabi airline Etihad Airways completed the world’s first ultra-long-haul flight without single-use plastic. The flight took place on World Earth Day, April 22 2019 and travelled from Abu Dhabi to Brisbane, Australia over a 14-hour period.

Etihad Airways conducted the flight to launch its initiative to reduce its single-use plastic by 80 per cent by 2022.

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