While we’ll see if this goes anywhere, Alaska Airlines has just run an interesting trial, and I can’t help but wonder if it could work on a larger scale.
Continue reading: Alaska Airlines Tests Reusable Cups On Flights
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
This reminded me of JAL's rent a few days' wardrobe campaign they had to reduce luggage weight. I wonder how much traction that is getting? Do these initiatives make any material impact?
So you pour boxed water into a reusable cup....
And then these cups are being washed and not inspected for lip marks and lipstick I presume. Raise your hand if you've still had lip marks on your glass at a restaurant.
I haven’t. I only dine at places with proper dishwashing. That’s what life is like when you’re partner at Paul, Weiss.
Good on Alaska. For the morons who complain, ever realize first class has always been served reusable cups? This initiative expands that to economy in a scalable fashion.
We should be happy Alaska employs smart people and not morons who comment on the internet. As a matter of disclosure, I am a former employee of Alaska Airlines, and enjoyed the experience very much, before I took my career in a different direction.
There are less people in biz and first such that the cutlery and glass can be washed without compromising quality. Try 10x that, and you are bound to have sanitary issues, at least in the beginning. Overall, I’d just be double checking the glass to make sure there aren’t any visible marks or lipsticks before using them. (Just like you should be doing when flying first and biz anyway).
Delta also did a similar test but does not appear to have implemented it so apparently the economics or logistics didn't work.
While reducing waste is laudable, water is also a resource and having enough water and then cleaning it up after soap is poured into it is not a cheap or easy task.
as for the "this is how it is done in first class" there is a difference in storing and cleaning glass and plastic.
There are also concerns about chemicals leaking from plastic which might increase with the use of hot water.
Unless this is eco friendly highly suspect. They would be doing this already across Europe.
This was probably some sponsorship of some sort. A single roundtrip on a single plane is hardly a study. Did they even use the same cups outbound vs inbound?
In long haul economy, many airlines already have a reusable plastic cup included on trays for the tea and coffee service. If they can clean and reuse those cups on such a large scale, I am not sure how this is different provided the cups are durable enough.
Drinking out of a plastic cup degrades the enjoyment of the beverage. If Alaska is moving to reusable cups, proper glassware should be used.
The way they can elevate the travel experience. Nothing is worse than serving pre-departure drinks in plastic cups in First Class.
Economics aside, probably it is better for the environment to use disposable cups and recycle them than to transport these cups back and forth to a facility and wash them with detergent etc. Just like disposable plastic bags at your local gorcery store are actually better for the environment than a reusable shopping bag.
Reusable cups is disgusting.
Make sure to squeeze them so they crack so they cant reuse!
Remember Mexicana Airlines way back when? They were an all-coach airline, but all beverages on USA-Mexico flights were served in glassware!
So what is the environmental impact of heating the water, the water itself and all the other things that would go into washing these services items..... I wonder if that's a good trade off. I'm sure someone (hopefully) has put research into that.
Absolutely disgusting! It is already a major concern when hot water heaters are not properly cleaned on plane. Now this? I will be bringing my own one use paper cups on flights.
Have you been to a restaurant before? Many feature reusable plates, utensils, and glasses!
As far as I can understand, sanitizing happens when the surface is clean and dry. This can happen in an industrial dishwasher. I really can't understand how they clean and dry plastic cups. I do know that I will NOT use them.
Polypropylene will be recyclable soon enough. PureCycle Technologies has licensed the technology from Proctor and Gamble and is working on recycling at scale.
Are you a child? Do you break cups at restaurants because you hate that they’re not single use? Get the absolute heck over yourself…
Airlines went from proper glassware to plastic cups (to reduce weight) to paper cups (to reduce environmentalist yipyap) and now back to plastic cups (again to reduce more environmentalist yipyap).
How about having some balls and doing what's right for the customers instead of going round and round in circles trying to please the Greta Thunbergs of this world, who can NEVER be pleased?? Glassware is the best: infinitely more classy and more reusable than plastic ever will be.
Thank God. It's about time! I expect this move will start to lower global temperatures and moderate storms.
Surprised on the uproar here. I'm no environmental zealot but there is a shocking number of plastic cups used per flight, why wouldn't you just clean and reuse them like we do with glassware etc in premium cabins? Why is it unclean if it's plastic and not if it's glass? It can't be the case that the environmental impact of washing them is worse than discarding them and manufacturing new ones on demand.
Some absolute braindead comments by people who apparently think restaurants throw away glasses after every use.
As someone who did work in a large kitchen, we had a constantly running "drive thru" dishwasher where the cups and plates are loaded onto pallets and then they journey through the different stages in under 1 minute before popping out the other end sanitized.
So, since Alaska changed their mileage plan, I could not get my favorite combination of Condor Transatlantic plus onward to Maui in 'J' for 55K anymore, but now it is 85K, and the leg from West Coast to Maui in Eco. And no, I won't waste another 115K or whatever to fly in their 'First Class' on that final leg, especially since they don't serve pre-departure bubbly. So I opted for their 'Premium Eco' or whatever they call that relatively decent legroom crap, for an extra 180 bucks or so. You can pre-order food, and drinks are free. So, since I prefer to spend my time in a aluminum bin for 5 hours + with some gin-tonics, which happens to be my in- flight drink since 50 years, I ordered some of those. Unfortunately they serve the worst gin I ever had in my life, 'Aviation Gin' which tastes like some weird chemical concoction, and they served it in some kind of cardboard cups, that started dissolving after the second gin, adding to the terrible taste of that utterly substandard gin. I will bring a real glass with me the next flight, because that was just disgusting!
Wow, the comments are pretty crazy. I think as a society we have mastered the art of washing cups. I can’t get how you can travel and be stressed about this. You know how many people farted in your airplane seat?
Society may have mastered washing cups, not all industrial employees will doe their job correctly. I imagine the methods of washing plastic are critical.
In my opinion, chances of catching any bacteria or virus from a seat are minor if there is no open wound.
My background included courses is achieving sterility and countless mandatory continuing ed on the subject.
I assume the required sanitizing (if not sterility) is achieved by very hot water. What happens when the water, for some reason, is not hot enough? Either the water traveled far from the heater or the loads overwhelmed the hot water source. Does the minimum wage employee stop the process and force the kitchen to stop? or is the lack of safe temperature ignored?
I would be happy if the items were fully dried but it does not sound like the equipment would do that.
Yes. At r.World, we have analyzed all the environmental impacts of reuse with a Life Cycle Analysis and reuse wins on all measures provided the cups are reused. And, on Alaska Air, we get a 99.8% harvest rate!
Yes, as CEO of r.World I can confirm every one of these glasses is cleaned and dried properly r.World EcoLab Certified sanitization hubs meeting every local and FDA requirement.
We have completed a life cycle analysis and reuse beats single-use for this application.
Every cup is inspected by our AI quality assurance system to make sure only clean, sanitized cups are delivered.