Tremblay-en-France (TAN): Air France has decided to go green so that it can eliminate 210 million single-use plastic items by the end of this year. The airline will stop handing out cutlery and cups made of single-use plastic, replacing them with sustainable alternatives on all flights.
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Air France already jumped into action. Recently, passengers on flight AF378 from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport to Detroit in the United States were served products made of sustainable materials.
The carrier will put a stop to using 100 million plastic cups and 25 million plastic stirrers, substituting them with paper cups and wooden stirrers, respectively. Products made with bio-based resources will be used instead of 85 million plastic cutlery items. These changes will help remove 1,300 tons of plastic from the environment by the end of 2019.
Air France has already been practicing several sustainable approaches, including replacement of the plate and cutlery set used for the second meal on long-haul flights with a ‘Bon Appetit’ bag, since last November. Also, the airline reduced 1.3 million plastic pieces since 2015 after removing plastic drinking straws on board.
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The flight from Paris to Detroit was flown on a Boeing 787-9 aircraft, which does not only consume 20 per cent less fuel than usual models but also emits lower noise pollution. Eco-piloting techniques of the Dreamliner such as flight path optimisation according to weather conditions and weight of the aircraft help control fuel consumption – around 2.7 litres of fuel is consumed per passenger per 100 kilometres.
The airline plans to reduce and offset its carbon dioxide emissions, reduce, recycle and reprocess its waste, and cut down on the noise footprint of its operations to contribute to the environment.
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