Upgraded: Awareness of airlines’ crappy recycling efforts
I have always bristled at the toss-everything-in-the-bag trash collection aboard US-based airlines. (It’s a striking contrast from European carriers, for example.) So I’m glad to see some light shining on the recycling practices — or lack thereof — of American carriers. The best of the bunch: Delta and Virgin America, who earn a grade of B- from Green America (pdf). Failing grades: United and US Airways. See the FastCompany roundup here.
Upgraded: Wifi on Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines will put wi-fi on all its aircraft, using Aircell’s service, which is sold under the Gogo name.
Downgraded: Rental car deals
Blame Toyota. The carmaker’s huge recall took out about 8% of vehicles of the American rental car fleet. Yes, recall repairs are being done, but the rates aren’t pulling back too quickly. That is, unless you’re doing a one-way rental from Florida to … well, anywhere.
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February 26th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
C’mon, really? To quote the headline form the previous article, “Do we really need recycling on airlines?” Each moment of a flight should be dedicated to 1) safety and 2) taking care of the customer’s flying experience. Let recycling wait till you’re on the ground.
February 26th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
@Time: How exactly does recycling take a way from 1) safety or 2) one’s flying experience?
There are many simple and easy steps airlines could take to drastically reduce waste in the air that would take no longer than current practices. They would probably save money too, not to mention the environment.
March 2nd, 2010 at 11:02 am
I’m proud to see airlines aren’t wasting my time and money on recycling. If it was worth the effort, it’d be profitable. For example, bums make a great living on cans, but not on paper and most other items. Why not focus on things that are actually profitable for an industry that’s packing quite a wallop? Leave the left-wing dreams to those willing to pay for it. Charge extra for those who want their garbage recycled. I know a lot of nuts would pay for it. Don’t make my tickets go up so you can say you’re green. I’ll avoid any airline that does this.
That’s the same reason I don’t do it at home. I pay for garbage service. There is no discount if I recycle items. Why would I waste my time for no gain?
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:18 pm
The knee-jerk anti-recycling mindset of Briam (typo?) and Tim (not me, the first commenter) is remarkable. Briam especially: I have to wonder if this is a trolling joke: “That’s the reason I don’t do it at home. I pay for garbage service. There is no discount if I recycle items. Why would I waste my time for no gain?” The failure to recycle leads to increased usage of landfills, which raises the base cost of garbage collection. Recycling keeps materials out of those landfills, which reduces the collection costs for everyone. Recycling IS a discount. But I suppose such economic thinking is just a “left-wing dream.”
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:51 pm
(CNN) — Mark Ashley watches with a weary eye whenever flight attendants walk up and down the aisles of a plane to collect the trash on his flights.
Items that he would normally separate for recycling at his home and office are often dumped into a single bag on planes.
So copious amounts of empty soda cans, plastic bottles and cups, as well as discarded newspapers — all of which could be salvaged — probably end up as garbage.
“I think about how many pounds go up in the air and then just go straight into a landfill,” said Ashley, 37, a college administrator in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He flies once a month and writes the Upgrade: Travel Better blog.
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Reeaaaalllyyyy, thats what this guy has to do on his flights???? He sits there and ponders this crap??? Maybe he should be doing some work on the flight to better the college he works for. Hey Mark, get a life! looser!
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:05 pm
I travel quite a bit due to my profession. And till date the only airline that I have seen doing a good job in collecting and segregating trash is “Alaska Air”. You can check out details at http://www.alaskaair.com/as/www2/company/csr/recycling-waste.asp
And I am not a Alaska Air employee
Bon Voyage
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Almost everything a flight attendant collects i.e. newspapers, cans, plastic bottles gets thrown away. Flight Attendants may collect it in a specific “recycling” bag however, at the airport its collected, most have no recycling opportunities in place! It almost always goes in one giant dumpster regardless of items. Some are so quick to jump on the airlines.
March 2nd, 2010 at 1:49 pm
This article and others refer to it make the claim about recycling which the author does not verify. That the waste material is collected in a common bag does not mean that it is not separated at another location. Materials collected in a common manner can be separated in many cases since metals will be easily separated from paper and plastic. The later, plastic, is a common problem and depends upon the consumer and manufacturer for solutions as these are common problems elsewhere as well. A little education on the actual processes of recycling and reduction would help the author.
March 3rd, 2010 at 10:32 am
Mark Ashley is clearly a member of the “liberal elite.” Typical attitude of dictating how we all should live our lives. It is disconcerting that in another of Mark’s blogs he uses profane language for the headline. That tells me a lot about this guy. He is right there with Anthony Bourdain. I suppose Mark is still a proponent of the man made global warming errrr I mean climate change initiative, or whatever it is being called now.
March 3rd, 2010 at 10:50 am
Chip Bennett Re: “Reeaaaalllyyyy, thats what this guy has to do on his flights???? He sits there and ponders this crap??? Maybe he should be doing some work on the flight to better the college he works for. Hey Mark, get a life! looser!”
In regards to the poster, Chip Bennett. Were you educated in a class taught by Mark Ashley? I’ll give Mark this much, he can most likely spell “loser” correctly. If you’re going to insult someone on their intelligence, at least be intelligent yourself. You “loser.” lol.
March 4th, 2010 at 10:51 am
Hey ding dong, some airports have single stream recycling. Just because all waste is put into one bag, it doesn’t mean that the waste just goes straight to a landfill. It’s environmental zealots like you that give everyone who has a sensible approach to the environment a bad name. Get off of your environmental high horse you elitist pinhead.
March 4th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
The hatred for recycling — and for me — on this thread is impressive. Especially impressive considering the few number of words I spent on the recycling issue as part of this roundup.
The majority of the negative comments are by commenters who came here from the CNN mention, and while it’s likely that those who lobbed a verbal hand grenade were drive-by commenters who aren’t coming back to review the comments, I think it’s important to respond.
For starters, I’m leaving the insults up, instead of taking them down. No comments have been deleted or edited. I’m leaving them up because the childish comments, politically clouded mockery, and lowest-common-denominator slurs reflect worse on those who left those comments than they reflect on me.
To those who argue that recycling is part of a liberal elite plot to control the universe: grow up. There’s only so much space on this earth for our trash, and the effort to reduce and reuse, above all else, followed by the effort to recycle, is virtuous.
Some slightly more thoughtful comments mention the concept of single-stream recycling, wherein people or companies throw all recyclables into one bin, and it’s later sorted at a central site. That saves the trouble of separating your recyclables before pickup. But that’s not what’s being done by US airlines when the flight attendant collects trash and puts everything all in one bag. It’s not all recyclables that are collected in a single bag; it’s all trash. Those who bothered to read the Green America report referenced in the post would have seen that. Instead, it was easier to just take a pot shot.
I agree with those who say — here and offline — that much of the blame falls on the airports, and not just on the airlines. I agree. In fact, I made this argument in my discussion with the CNN reporter. It’s an integrated response between airlines and airports that is necessary, not just a calling-out of the airlines. I didn’t make that point here on the (brief) post, and perhaps I should have. But the airlines have shown themselves to be disinterested in effecting change at airports. Again, the issue itself is addressed in part by the actual report. I quote it at some length here:
As a final comment, I ask that readers and commenters engage in a little more decorum here. Hurling insults at me, or at others, is not welcome. Most readers, and certainly the regulars who frequent these pages, have no problem with this. They attack ideas, not people. But some new folks seem to need a reminder.
Thanks.