In recent times, people are seen to be much worried about the accumulation of plastics in the oceans. But they never thought about the plastic that is used in the skies until Etihad Airways revealed on earth day (April 22) that it used about 27 million single-use plastic coffee cups.
This single revelation shows how much plastic is there in the sky travelling from one region to another. But Etihad Airways has now shown the way to discard single-use plastic when it flew from Abu Dhabi to Brisbane in Australia with no single plastic on board. Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, has become the first one to fly plastic free in the skies.
”The milestone flight is part of Etihad’s ongoing commitment to the environment, to go beyond Earth Day celebrations, and pledge to reduce single-use plastic usage by 80 per cent not just in-flight, but across the entire organisation by the end of 2022,” an airlines release said.
Environmentalists and other nature lovers now feel that the other airways should follow the Etihad way for saving the planet from plastics.
Etihad identified over 95 single-use plastic products are used across its aircraft cabins.
In the maiden no single plastic use flight, Etihad had replaced plastic coffee cups with edible ones and had given award-winning eco-thread blankets made from recycles plastic bottles, Toothpastes in chewable tablet form wrapped in a cardboard box and toothbrush came from wheat straw. Children were treated to eco-plush toys. The meals were given in reusable trays and paper bags were used for carrying bread. On a single flight, Etihad had saved the earth from being filled up with 50 kilograms of plastic.
As a major step towards a cleaner air journey with no plastics around, most of the environmentalists want that all the major companies and organisations in the world should see that less plastic is used. It is high time that the use of plastic is discouraged so that the world would live longer.
”Etihad additionally committed to remove up to 20 per cent of the single-use plastic items on board by June one, 2019. By the end of this year, Etihad will have removed 100 tonnes of single-use plastics from its inflight service,” the release said.
