You might notice something a little different the next time you order a soft drink on a Southwest Airlines flight.
Instead of plastic, your drink will come in a cup made of bamboo and will be served with a birchwood stick sporting the carrier’s “Heart” logo.
Here’s how it looks:
The new stir stick is made entirely of birchwood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, a non-profit organization that uses independent groups to ensure that forests are managed responsibly. The new cup is made of 93% non-plastic material, with a pulp mixture of 75% bamboo and 25% paper, and has a polyethylene liner. Bamboo is considered a “rapidly renewable material” by the US Green Building Council (an organization dedicated to reducing climate impacts) because it reaches maturity in three to five years.
Southwest said it has done “rigorous testing” on materials with customers and employees — switching from plastic to bamboo cups and birchwood stir sticks won’t make your water, soda or other soft drinks taste bad.
The Dallas-based airline also says switching to bamboo and birchwood cups will help it reduce its use of single-use plastics by more than 1.5 million pounds a year. This will help the company to make progress towards achieving its major sustainability goals.
“We are excited to continue working with our suppliers to work toward our goal of completely eliminating, where possible, single-use plastics from aviation supplies by 2030,” said Helen Giles, Southwest’s managing director of environmental sustainability, in a statement.
Southwest’s Nonstop to Net Zero strategy, announced in 2023, established the airline’s goal to join the larger aviation community in achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050. The company’s 2025 goals are to reduce single-use plastics produced by inflight service by 50% (by weight) and save an additional 50 million liters of jet fuel.
In addition, in July 2024, Southwest previously reduced its use of simple plastic by changing the packaging of many napkins from plastic to paper packaging made from 100% post-consumer recycled materials, completely eliminating the use of plastic in this particular item.
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In the coming months, Southwest plans to introduce a new snack selection offering on flights to and from Hawaii to reduce food waste and reduce single-use plastic by at least 18,000 pounds per year.
Southwest is looking at other areas to continue reducing plastic-use-inflight.
According to the carrier’s 2023 Southwest One Report, while 75% of single-use plastics are made from (now defunct) cups and chopsticks, as well as straws and plastic snack packaging, about 25% of the plastic that the plane tries on. finish comes from single-use wine bottles and liquor bottles. The airline has also committed to improving its recycling program by (among other actions) “practicing consistency” with regard to in-flight recycling, improving its same recycling program and supporting various programs and organizations that promote the airline’s leather seat covers.
Southwest, of course, is not the only airline working on ways to achieve its sustainability goals. On National Recycles Day (Oct. 20), Alaska Airlines tested a reusable cup system on a round-trip flight between Seattle and Minneapolis. The airline has removed plastic cups from flights from January 2023.
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