Air France Says ‘Au Revoir’ To Single-Use Plastics

It’s the end of the road for plastic cutlery, cups, stirrers etc. at Air France.

For this year’s World Environment Day, passengers on flight AF 378 from Paris-Charles de Gaulle to Detroit were offered products made of bio-based materials instead of single-use plastic items usually distributed on board, in keeping with airline rules and health regulations.

Air France has announced a decision to eliminate 1,300 tons of single-use plastic. In this way, the airline will eliminate 210 million single-use plastic items by the end of 2019. They will be replaced by sustainable alternatives on all flights.

This represents: 100 million plastic cups replaced with paper cups; 85 million plastic cutlery items replaced with products made from bio-based materials and packaging; 25 million plastic stirring sticks replaced with wooden stirrers.

Since November 2018, Air France has replaced the plate and cutlery set used for the second meal on long-haul flights with a “BON APPETIT” bag.

By the end of the year, these innovations will result in the elimination of 1,300 tons of plastic.

In addition, since 2015, Air France no longer supplies plastic drinking straws on board, representing a reduction of 1.3 million plastic items.