Originally Posted by
Antarius
Weight, space, cleaning cost/resources.
Can you imagine stocking 100+ mugs on the aircraft?
Yes, and over the course of one year, the impact on the environment for the additional fuel to fly and wash an extra 100 mugs will be far less than 150 cups thrown away per leg. I don't know what the average number of legs per 24 hour period for an AA aircraft is, but assuming its say four, that's 219,000 styrofoam / plastic cups per year. The airline can find a place to stow them.