Which airlines are recycling passenger trash?

June 1st, 2010

With summer coming up, chances are that many of you (lucky people) are planning a vacation.

If you’re flying, think about which airlines make an honest attempt at recycling passenger trash. That’s important since airline passengers create around 881 million pounds of waste per year when flying! All those individually wrapped items are a topic for another post….

A few months ago, Green America gave marks to popular airlines. And, sadly, it wasn’t very pretty. However, something tells me you’re not surprised.

Green America’s report, “What Goes Up Must Go Down: The Sorry State of Recycling in the Airline Industry,” was published by their consumer watchdog website, Responsible Shopper.

Not even one airline recycles all the common recyclables — glass, aluminum cans, plastic and paper.

When you’re asked to fill out a survey about your experience with an airline, do the earth a favor and mention how important you think recycling and waste reduction is.

According to the report, Delta, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic and Southwest are doing better than the rest when it comes to recycling passenger trash. Airlines doing the worst job of recycling passenger trash include United and US Airways.

From best to worst, here are all of Green America’s airline recycling ratings:

  • Delta Airlines
  • Virgin America
  • Virgin Atlantic
  • Southwest Airlines
  • Continental Airlines
  • Jet Blue
  • American Airlines
  • British Airways
  • Air Tran
  • United Airlines
  • US Airways

(image via sxc)

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