Qantas and Jetstar generate 30,000 tonnes of general waste each year! This is a staggering amount of waste that can be diverted! However, exciting times!!! Qantas have announced this week that they plan to reduce the amount of their landfill waste by 75% by end of 2021. This is a massive announcement by the company!
Alan Joyce noted that the 30,000 tonnes they produce each year is equivalent to eighty 747 Jumbos! That is a crazy amount of waste!
Whilst this pledge seems unrealistic, considering their earlier pledge was only 30% diversion, they can easily make small changes to their everyday practices.
One of company's main goals attached to their pledge includes the removal of 100 million single use plastic items from flights and lounges by 2020 and replacing these with recyclable containers.
Qantas has already taken small steps towards their goals by removing plastic wrapping on pyjamas and headsets, as well as plastic straws. Even the Frequent Flyer cards will soon be all digital so their is no reason to print thousands of plastic cards to members across the world.
We will see changes including:
- Introduction of coffee cups that can be recycled or composted
- Eliminate all single use plastic
- Remove unnecessary paper, including paper boarding passes
- Recycling old uniforms
- Increasing donation or composting of food
It will be very interesting to see how Qantas will achieve their goals with different states and countries having a variety of waste stream options and rules for waste.
It is amazing to see such a largely recognised Australian company making headlines worldwide and being the first airline company to make such a big environmental pledge! Can't wait to see their journey!