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.
Alaska Airlines trials reusable cups in place of paper cups
October 20 is National Reuse Day, so Alaska took the opportunity to conduct an interesting trial. The Seattle-based carrier partnered with r.World to take its sustainability efforts to the next level. The airline performed a feasibility study on a roundtrip Seattle (SEA) to Minneapolis (MSP) trip, where all passengers were served out of reusable cups, rather than disposable plastic cups.
The cups are designed to be durable and fully reusable, and have apparently been popular with concertgoers and sports fans. After use, the cups can be collected, cleaned, and sanitized, and are made ready for their next journey.
The airline views this as part of an exploration into additional ways to reduce onboard waste, including eliminating single-use waste. The goal is to bring sustainability innovations to the carrier’s fleet, and the broader travel industry.
Alaska has a long history of trying to innovate when it comes to eliminating onboard waste. In 2018, Alaska became the first US airline to ditch plastic straws and stir sticks onboard. In 2021, Alaska replaced plastic water bottles with boxed water, served from 92% plant-based cartons. Then in 2023, Alaska became the first airline to offer a plastic-free beverage service to guests onboard, swapping out plastic cups for paper cups.
I wonder if the economics of this could work
Airlines are of course between a rock and a hard place when it comes to many environmental initiatives. They want to reduce their footprint whenever possible, but also have to balance that with the cost of such initiatives, especially given how low margin the industry is.
I can’t help but be curious about the economics of these reusable cups, since it almost seems to me like this could work, but only if it were scaled. Current cups obviously have a certain cost, but are single-use, so the cost can’t be amortized across multiple passengers.
Presumably these cups would be quite a bit more expensive, though I doubt that’s the main roadblock here. Instead, I suspect this comes down to the costs to clean these cups. Yes, airline catering kitchens are massive and very efficient, but cleaning the quantity of cups we’re talking about is probably no small task, and the logistics aren’t necessarily easy either.
I suppose another consideration is how often cups need to be replaced — sometimes people will take them, sometimes people may break them, etc.
As of now, Alaska doesn’t seem to be indicating that it has serious plans to roll this out on a widespread basis, instead noting that this is just a trial, and could be used to come up with other initiatives as well.
Bottom line
Alaska conducted an interesting trial, whereby the airline operated a flight with reusable cups, in place of paper cups. This is part of a feasibility study on the carrier’s part. It’s no doubt creative, though it sounds like there aren’t plans to roll this out on a more widespread basis anytime soon. It would be cool if this could scale, and I wonder if the industry could eventually head in this direction.
What do you make of Alaska’s trial with reusable cups?
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