Airline Food Waste and Excessive Packaging
I had just "powered off" my "electronic device" for landing on a recent flight and was placing my tray table "in the upright position" while glancing around anxiously for a cabin attendant to relieve me of my soda can and little plastic cup. When she came around with a trash bag, I offered the cup, but she asked for the can as well, placing everything in the same bag. I guess they don't recycle, I thought. What's up with that?!?
Salon's "Ask the Pilot" column (one of my favorite features on that site) tackles the issue in its latest installment.
Flights are often short and cabin service needs to be quick, but it would not take elaborate efforts to throw cans into one bag and plastic cups into another.... Would it not be a good idea to offer passengers the option of receiving a cup? I am often handed a small container of juice and a cup, even though it would be perfectly acceptable to drink directly from the container. On longer flights with multiple beverage services, cups are collected and thrown away each time, instead of allowing passengers to reuse the first one.
The pilot also brings up good points about the volume of packaging associated with airline food and notes that Virgin Atlantic is has the "most comprehensive and impressive" in-flight recycling program among airlines.
Excuse me while I have an Andy Rooney moment, but, you know, I actually don't remember the last time I had an airline meal (probably the last time I flew international), but I don't know why the airlines just don't scrap the in-flight meal service altogether and pass along the savings to customers. Despite the numerous attempts at having name chefs prepare airline meal menus, the food is still miserable, and the snacks always blow (I find pretzels dry and bland), so I end up packing my own sandwich and treats for the ride.
As someone far wiser than I has pointed out somewhere before (probably Salon's pilot, Patrick Smith), flying has long since ceased to be the glamorous mode of travel it once was, and for the majority of travelers, a plane is little more than a flying bus. Greyhound doesn't give me a warm cookie and a choice of beverages, so why do we expect it when we leave ground?
Photograph: ©iStockphoto.com/sharply_done
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
6 Comments:
I believe that the word "eco-friendly" has been abused due to frequent use without the understanding that it is simply a marketing scheme to make you feel less guilty about your lifestyle.
I believe that there is no such thing as being eco-friendly. There are practices that have less impact than others in terms of environmental pollution.
Biofuels and being carbon neutrals are other options, but not answers. Biofuels create as many problems as they were meant to solve; 1. Biofuels require oil to be made 2. Land used to grow food for human consumption are instead being used to grow fuel 3. There is not enough biofuel to fulfill all of our fuel needs.
Also, the truth about recycling is that it costs more to recycle papers and plastics (though not glass). The questions one needs to pose about recycling is 1. How much does recycling cost? and 2. How many times can something be recycled?
When I was flying From Delhi to Helsinki and Helsinki to JFK, I too noticed the incredible about of waste generated from the in-flight snacks, meals, and beverage services. It was disturbing, to say the least. One can only hope that other airlines follow Virgin Airlines' lead or perhaps some incentive could be given to airlines to recycle because unless some monetary gain is involved, I highly doubt airlines would take it upon themselves to change. If anything, maybe they could start a compost pile from all of the food wastes.
steamedbun at 12:14PM on 03/02/08
Well, the last time I flew was International, and while I remember getting two meals on the flight to, the flight back only had one meal (IIRC).
My wife just left for South Africa. That's a 16 hour flight (no getting off the plane at the halfway mark, due to security you know) without any way of keeping anything cold, or getting it hot? Yeah, I think meals on international flights (which seem to be the only flights nowadays that has real food, and bad as they are, even in first/business class) are pretty much necessary.
And if you wanted to really be eco-friendly, you shouldn't be flying to start with.
bytehead at 3:41PM on 03/02/08
Flying has become a necessary evil in our society, even for the environmentally-conscious. In-flight meals could be more eco-friendly, by using paper trays for foods (like Amy's Organics foods), making the extra effort to use only goods made entirely from recycled materials, and, perhaps on shorter flights, eliminating cabin service altogether. But, all things considered, if you must fly, flying commercial has less impact per individual than say, taking a private plane, as many of our "eco-warrior" celebrities do.
beth1 at 4:34PM on 03/02/08
I just flew to South Africa as well. The food was horrible on the flight there, but not so bad coming back. They did actually recycle and made a point to let us know that they were doing so. I flew Delta, so I am not sure if it something only they are doing.
malenky at 5:43PM on 03/02/08
I flew to the Middle East on Gulf Air recently, and they actually seemed much more contentious than my Air Canada leg. All the dishes were made of heavy reusable plastics and ceramics, and the recyclables were collected in different bags.. Though Air Canada did collect the cans separately and encouraged us to reuse our cups, but only on the way to Europe, not the way back. I wonder if it's up to the flight attendants themselves?
I have to say - even as bad as the food can be? On a nine hour flight, it's pretty much the only thing that breaks up the monotony.
Peasantwench at 11:09AM on 03/03/08
Recycling is a fine idea, but sometimes it's not as easy to do as one might imagine. A friend of mine ran a local cafe, and people were sometimes upset to see that the bottles and cans went into the regular trash. She told me that she'd love to recycle, and she did it at home, but the waste company that serviced the businesses in town didn't have a recycling service. She didn't generate enough recyclables to warrant a recycling company having a bin for her. Her only option, if she wanted to recycle, was to sort the bottles and cans out of the trash at the cafe and bring them home with her. She tried that for a time, but more often than not she'd forget that the recyclables were in the car and she'd forget to bring them in. Not so bad on a cold day, but on a warm day, it could get a bit unpleasant to have trash in the car overnight.
Whether a particular plane sorts recycleables might have a lot to do with what's available at the next stop and/or whether they have the space to hold the trash for the next leg of the journey. Recycling rules (and options) vary a whole lot across the country, and across the world. In Europe, some of the homes are required to recycle food waste (it's used for composting), and I haven't heard of that anywhere in the US. European flights might also have more options for recycling at the airports than you'd find at US airports, overall.
dbcurrie at 1:55AM on 03/05/08