Virgin Australia has joined the fight against single-use plastic by removing 260,000 plastic straws and 7.5 million stirrers from its aircraft and lounges.
Announced this week, the airline has replaced all plastic straws with paper alternatives and plastic stirrers with those made of bamboo.
The environmentally-friendly decision is part of Virgin Australia’s focus on improving sustainability within its operations, General Manager of Group Sustainability Rob Wood said.
“This is part of our focus to improve the sustainability of the packaging we use as a business and to reduce the amount of single-use plastic across our inflight and lounge offerings.”
Rob Wood, Virgin Australia General Manager of Group Sustainability
Rob said that the airline knows there’s “still improvements to be made”, and the team will continue to search for ways to correct them and reduce its environmental footprint.
“As an airline, we have a responsibility to contribute to sustainable initiatives that will benefit the environment and removing plastic straws and stirrers is an important step in the right direction,” he said.
Virgin Australia follows a long of other travel brands making sustainable changes to their operations, such as Uniworld, Hurtigruten, Royal Caribbean and more.
According to Strawlessocean.org, plastic straws are a major issue for the earth and its wildlife, as some 71 percent of seabirds along with 30 percent of turtles have been found with plastic in their stomach.
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