Air New Zealand has committed to increasing the number of single-use plastic items it will remove from its operation
this year by more than double, from 24 million to nearly 55 million items.
To mark Plastic Free July the airline has removed individual plastic water bottles from its Business Premier and Premium
Economy cabins, as well as from its Works Deluxe offering on Tasman and Pacific Island services under five hours in
duration. This is expected to divert more than 460,000 bottles from landfill annually and reduce carbon emissions by
more than 300,000 kilograms per year by reducing weight on the aircraft.
Individual plastic sauce packets are being removed from Business Premier cabins on mainland North America and Hong Kong
services, and these will be eliminated entirely from the global network by the end of October. Customers will instead be
served sauce in reusable dishes which is expected to prevent around 200,000 plastic packets going to landfill each year.
The airline is also set to roll out coffee cups made from plants rather than plastic across its domestic and
international networks from October, while plastic water cups will be transitioned to recyclable alternatives from
September. The previous commitment targeted coffee and water cups on Air New Zealand’s domestic network where the
majority of cups are used, however, the scope has now expanded to introduce the lower impact cups across the
international network, lifting the total number of cups being replaced this year from 14.7 million to 44.5 million.
Air New Zealand’s Acting Head of Sustainability Anna Palairet says the airline is focused on reducing the amount of
single-use plastic products it purchases at source, as the lack of composting infrastructure in New Zealand at present
poses a challenge.
“Single-use plastic is a highly topical and visible issue for us and our customers, so we’re really pleased to be able
to share this progress to celebrate Plastic Free July. The lack of composting infrastructure available in New Zealand is
a challenge so we have been focused on reducing the amount of single-use plastic products we purchase in the first
place.
“It’s great to see more and more customers are bringing their reusable drink bottles and keep cups on board, and we
encourage people to do this – our cabin crew team is happy to fill these.”
Single use plastic item Items of waste avoided per annum (approx.)substituted by end of October Plastic cups 29 m (up from 7.4m)Café cups and lids 15.5 m (up from 7.3m)Cheese trays 550 kAtlas lids 45 kOther plastic bags 1.5 mSauce packets 200 k Already substituted/removed Water bottles460 kStirrers 7.1 mToothbrushes 260 kEye mask wrappers 260 kStraws 3 k