I travel quite a lot and have done for many years. One of the things you cannot help noticing is how the waste you can generate on a flight has grown over the years. On a recent Easyjet flight I asked for a cup of tea. I was given the cup of tea in a paper cup – fantastic. However that was then accompanied by a plastic sitrer, a plastic lid for the cup, another plastic cup to put my tea bag in, and two small plastic milk containers. When I said that I didn’t want the lid I was told I had to have it because of ‘Health and Safety’ reasons. When I suggested that they could just pour milk from a jug they said something similar. After a 5 hour flight I had generated my own personal landfill site.
Although Easyjet proclaim to be environmentally ‘friendly’ all of the waste ended up in the same bag, except for plastic bottles which they did make some attempt to recover.
A friend of mine sent me this image which he took on a recent Are Lingus flight from Shannon to Birmingham. It is a plastic waste bag, that was wrapped inside a plastic bag and then wrapped again in a plastic wrapper. I think it has to be the most ridiculous amount of excessive and unnecessary plastic waste that I have seen in a single product.
The Health and Safety fear factor does not only rest with airlines. Go into a hotel and in the bathroom you will possibly find a plastic cup covered in a plastic bag. When you ask why …. Health and Safety! Get real people. You don’t cover my towels in a plastic bag, or my bed. I can see if something is clean or not. Stop hiding behind Health and Safety and sort yourselves out.