Is it just me, or does anyone else think that CX uses way too much single-use plastic on their flights? I just read AirNZ will be removing plastic bottles on some of their short-haul flights, which i applaud: https://waste-management-world.com/a...lis-Tvy64Airky

There are so many low-hanging fruits for CX to be more environmentally-friendly, e.g. changing plastic utensils used in Y to stainless steel, like what SQ does.

i need my bottled water on the flight thanks.
dont trust the tanks on the plane.

Replacing recyclable plastic with non-recyclable wax/plastic lined paper product is merely a marketing ploy pandering for 'eco-friendly' passenger's money.

The carbon footprint of washing/reusing utensils are much greater than single use plastic, think of all the water treatment needed to produce clean water, and the treatment after.

Also, passengers from this part of the world loves taking stuff from planes, CX will be buying more new metal utensils in the system than they wash. Partly the reason why TG switched to plastic few years back.

Single use plastic is unavoidable to maintain hygiene cheaply. Think there's no single use plastic involved in premium cabins? Look inside the galley and see how all the meals and garnishes are loaded.

The socially responsible thing to do is to actually recycle properly but there is no money in recycling and Hong Kong has essentially no infrastructure or supply chain to support it.

Just my two cents.

If you want to support the regime for environmental protection, you can try start doing on your own, say bringing a bottle for getting water on board.
Nevertheless, please do not enforce your idealism to everyone else.
"If I don't want bottled water, everyone can't have one."

At the very least, I don't want to drink water from the contaminated water tanks.

I do that all the time, thanks. I always decline the bottle of Evian, and when I fly Y I bring my own coffee mug.

Man, this thread is depressing AF. No one gives a damn about the environment, huh!

Water onboard aside, I do think there are many things they can do to reduce their plastics use. They can start with the individual bottles of water in the lounge.

As someone who go out of my way to recycle, I abhor companies trying to disguise cost cutting through a front of an environmentally friendly practice (don't know enough about Air NZ to say whether they are doing this but there are lots of companies guilty of doing this). But it's especially hypocritical when airlines start flaunting their environmental conscience when flying in an aircraft produces 90kg of CO2 per hour per passenger while a single water bottle has a carbon footprint of 82g. That's about 1,100 plastic bottles per hour in which one hour is the carbon equivalent of more than an entire year's consumption of bottled water for most people (and entire flight may be the equivalent of other people's entire carbon footprint in a year).

But back to OP's point, it is possible to actually re-wash and re-use plastic cutlery. Qantas did it. But that requires more analysis to calculate the carbon costs of operating the dishwasher, environmental impact of water, transportation, sorting, etc.

No way

Yes, flying has a huge carbon footprint but it doesn't mean that we can't take (however small) steps to decrease it. I also think carbon footprints can be misleading in the sense that excessive amount of plastic bottles used will always lead to plastic bottles being improperly discarded, which affects the oceans - be it in the form of micro-plastic, etc - this isn't captured in a carbon footprint.

I think it'll be great if CX can do this!

I think CX (Long haul) Y meals are pretty minimal with the extra waste they create. Just a few points.

1) The utensil packet contains the same items regardless of the meal type. Quite often the spoon isn't needed. I know this means having to stock different sets for different meal types, but someone could do the math to see if it was better or not. If there was a way for them not to come in the plastic wrap, even better.
2) Quite often there is a dish that is empty or just storing an item that could be placed on the tray. Apart from the weight and fuel burn, there is the needless need to wash these again.
3) Are the plastic tops to the salad and dessert dishes recycled? And the aluminium foil from the main dish? And the water bottles? Hope so. But I have a feeling most countries require airline food waste to be incinerated to prevent diseases etc.

I use an expandable water bottle on long haul flights. I fill it up at the airport and as I drink it collapses in size giving me more space back.

Recycling will only ever work if it is an improvement on what it replaces. Continually washing refillable bottles and using an often questionable local water supply to fill tanks that need regular cleaning is not that.

I do take a refillable water bottle wherever i go but many airports don't have facilities to fill them up, and many that CX fly to i wouldn't want to use even if they did.

FFS. They are a HONG KONG airline. Nobody in HK gives a stuff about the environment. And while it would be nice if they did a few sensible things, getting rid of water bottles and contaminating us is not the place to start.

This sums up everything.

Life's too short, 'eco-friendly' flights costs money and recycling is not a good business case. But hey, if you find a way to cut waste whilst saving CX a lot of money, do suggest.

'caring for the environment' is a gimmick and a trend that will go soon, like coconut oil, jeggings and shoulder pads.

Recycling in HK (most of the world really) literally means trash going to landfill through a different path. There's no manufacturing in HK processing them and China stopped taking recycling waste few years ago. Where would they go? Ship to Malaysia? Sorry they don't take them either. They might on the off chance be shipped to Africa but after all the shipping and related pollution ask yourself if it's worth it.