Trash in The Friendly Skies
Every time I get on a plane- for decades now- I count out the number of napkins, cups, single serve food servings, plastic sleeves covering plastic utensils (unless you’re in first class or on a non-economy international carrier), cans, bottles, foil condiment coverings, that are used. I can’t help it.
Even if you bring your own water bottle — attendants cannot refill it for reasons of presumed sanitation. Even when you request “just the can” — if you are handed a cup but offer it back, it cannot be served to someone else because your hand touched it. It’s a kind of environmental bob and weave — a gauntlet of obstacles and missteps.
Indeed, a couple years ago, I flew from New York to Paris on WOW — the now defunct discount airline; that morning before arrival, I took pictures of my breakfast tray — plastic upon plastic, single use in mass abundance, not at all to mention the unhealthiness of the meal itself with not a single piece of wholesome food in sight (#worldfoodday)… I hadn’t asked for this meal, but as I was asleep when they came through, it was kindly left it for me. When I offered it back untouched — it could serve but one purpose: future landfill. I nearly wept. (And I wasn’t even thinking about my carbon footprint from the flight itself.) I took pictures and sent a tweet to the company that garnered no reply.
While our awareness of the trash we’re creating on this planet — all those single use containers of myriad shapes and sizes, the complexity of recycling and the lack of options in so many markets — floods many of our consciousnesses today, it has not always been the case. I am so pleased to see the growing awareness and the growing solution set.
Truly, it is essential, for as we read in the attached The New York Times article, new estimates suggest that “the average airline passenger leaves behind over three pounds of garbage” ranging from all that food and beverage service waste I just described, to disposable headphones, toilet waste, magazines, newspapers, and more.
With thousands of flights carrying hundreds of thousands of people around the world daily — just imagine what our trash piles looks like! I shudder considering how vastly this reality defies even the most cynical, scary imagination. And all of us knows that this is but one small sub-segment of the climate issues we face — most all of which are of our own human making.
All that said, it certainly feels we are changing, growing, beginning to invest in better materials, more sustainable and durable and reusable and compostable solutions. We are seeing ongoing innovations in hospitality and CPG companies slowly begin to join the dialogue and become a force for positive change. We are benefiting from the work of design groups like @PriestmanGoode mentioned in the article who are tackling the challenge head on. And we are witnessing a new generation — spearheaded at this moment by the amazing teenager @GretaThunberg — take up the cause en masse.
So next up: we the people; all of us. I’ll start and continue with myself — for if we can all make small choices every day to reduce our waste, make better decisions, stay conscious, not preclude how large an impact each of us can have by taking baby steps — we can radically alter the course of history and preserve this beautiful planet we get to call home. #notrashinthefriendlyskies
Originally published at https://medium.com on October 18, 2019.
