Seattle, WA’s Ridwell Partners with Alaska Airlines to Reduce Waste on Flights

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): For nearly 20 years as a flight attendant, Zoie B. has seen firsthand how the airline industry has evolved to embrace more sustainable practices. As a member of our Green Team business resource group, she was excited to take part in Alaska Airlines’ first feasibility test in partnership with Ridwell, aimed at reducing inflight waste headed to landfills.

Renowned for their innovative recycling services in the Pacific Northwest, Ridwell responsibly recycles multi-layer plastic items, and their partners turn them into cool new products like building materials and leach-free stormwater drainage material.

This past summer, Alaska Airlines became the first airline to partner with Ridwell to tackle hard-to-recycle waste onboard flights—items like Biscoff cookie wrappers, pretzel bags, and other snack packaging that usually end up in landfills.

This past summer, Alaska Airlines became the first airline to partner with Ridwell to tackle hard-to-recycle waste onboard flights—items like Biscoff cookie wrappers, pretzel bags, and other snack packaging that usually end up in landfills.

“By partnering up with Alaska Airlines, Ridwell is helping reduce plastic and waste even in the air, showing that Ridwell’s eco-friendly services help make a positive impact far beyond Seattle,” said Scott Coughlan, Environmental Sustainability Program Manager.

Over the course of 70 flights around our regional network, the feasibility test successfully diverted 17.1 pounds of films and multi-layer plastics from landfills through Ridwell’s responsible recycling methods. This test marked a promising step forward in Alaska Airlines’ commitment to reducing inflight waste, part of its 2025 sustainability goals announced in 2021.

“We discarded wrappers mainly into the Ridwell bag — pretzel, Biscoff wrappers and then other wrappers we collected from passengers. It was a great feeling to know that these items were not going in the landfill,” said Zoie.

Zoie and a group of other Horizon flight attendants, collected trash in special Ridwell bags as part of the test to reduce the amount of plastic and trash from going to waste, resulting in:

•          28 Ridwell bags used
•          17.1 pounds of films and multi-layer plastics kept out of landfills

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantagemag.com