What the fork! Qantas cutlery scandal

* Qanats re-uses cutlery "30 times"
* Knives, forks washed and resealed
* Virgin throws out cutlery after one use

IF YOU thought the plastic cutlery Qantas offered its passengers was new just because it came in sealed packaging, think again.

Qantas has admitted it re-uses plastic knives, forks and spoons multiple times, collecting them at the end of meals and sending them to a washing facility to be cleaned, before distributing them to a new set of passengers.

One supplier who visited the airline's Q Catering centre, at Mascot, told The Sunday Telegraph staff had informed him plastic cutlery was washed as many as 30 times before being thrown away.

"I asked them, 'If you have half a leftover sandwich, do you put it with another half?' " the supplier said.

"They said no."

A Qantas spokesman said plastic cutlery used on international flights, which convey as many as 19,000 passengers to and from Australia on weekdays, could be used at least three times.

"'It really depends on how far the cutlery has deteriorated," he said.

"It could be quite a few times more than three."

Plastic cutlery is used in the economy cabins of domestic and international flights, whereas premium economy, business and first class use plastic knives and metal forks and spoons.

Plastic cutlery on Qantas domestic flights, which carry as many as 50,000 passengers on a weekday, were not recycled because of "the sheer volume of passengers and because there's a higher proportion of economy passengers than in business and first class," the spokesman said.

Qantas defended its recycling policy, saying the plastic used was more robust than the disposable plastic of take-away cutlery and was put through a strict cleaning process.

A Virgin Blue spokeswoman said crew on V Australia long-haul flights threw out plastic cutlery after it was used.

Virgin removed plastic cutlery from its domestic flights two years ago to reduce waste and weight as part of the airline's fuel-burn/emissions-reduction program.

However, the company was considering a recycling program for long-haul flights, the spokeswoman said.

A Jetstar spokeswoman said passengers on long-haul flights paid for their plastic cutlery, so use was limited to 10 per cent of passengers, and staff did not recycle cutlery afterwards.