Ryanair has vowed to become “plastic free” in the next five years as part of its ongoing makeover.
The Ryanair chief executive, Michael O’Leary, has famously suggested shooting environmentalists, and repeatedly denies climate change is driven by carbon emissions, which aviation produces in abundance.
However, Ryanair has pledged to eliminate nonrecyclable plastics by 2023 and for customers it will introduce a voluntary carbon offset payment when booking.
Ryanair said it would make its head offices, bases and operations plastic free switching to biodegradable cups, wooden cutlery and paper packaging onboard.
The move comes the day after Ryanair formally agreed to identify the pilots union Balpa in the UK, and will form the centrepiece of the fifth year of what it terms its “customer experience improvement programme”, or being nicer.
Kenny Jacobs, the chief marketing officer said Ryanair’s plan of environment “includes our commitment to eliminate all nonrecyclable plastics from our operations over the next five years”.
He suggested customers could bring their own cups aboard, but added: “It’s not just inflight food and drink. We’re looking at the plastic parts within the aircraft and what’s nonrecylable and how do we work with the original equipment manufacturers to move to more recyclable plastics within the aircraft and the operation.”
But he admitted: “There will always be some kind of plastics … How far we get in terms of the 100% removal of nonrecyclable plastics we will see over the coming five years.”
> Shiuly Akter
