Originally Posted by
orbitmic
On the plastic ones a la IB, again, that's not something I hugely like myself. On the ceramic ones though, I'm not sure I am really following the argument. The ones I am talking about are just standard shakers with their movable seal at the bottom. Sure the ceramic itself will be produced wherever (I would be surprised if the salt and paper sachets were manufactured in expensive European factories for that matter) but will be shipped empty and can be filled, cleaned, and refilled locally as and when needed. The cleaning would not be any different from that of any of the crockery and cutlery, and the refilling can undoubtedly continue ad lib till the airline change their tableware which of course they do do every 10-20 years but I think that would be the only limit.
I don’t think manual collection, cleaning and refilling is realistic, not with the volume we’re talking about - economically unviable in the UK and North America (BA’s prime markets) where labour is so scarce and the minimum wage is so high. Mechanisation requires specialist tooling, and an operation that is hygiene certified and controlled. Much more efficient to ship the empties back to Xiamen where they were manufactured in the first place. This isn’t new which might explain why BA has used paper sachets for as long as I can remember.