Southwest Airlines' Inflight Bamboo Cup Creates a Stir

Southwest Airlines Co. has rolled out a new bamboo cup for inflight cold beverages to boost sustainability and reduce plastic waste, complete with a wood stir stick made from 100% forestry-certified birchwood branded with the airline’s signature heart.

The airline expects the new items to reduce inflight single-use plastics by more than 1.5 million pounds annually. It’s part of the company’s Nonstop to Net Zero strategy to eliminate single-use plastics from inflight service by 2030.

According to Helen Giles, Southwest’s managing director of environmental sustainability, these initiatives are expected to reduce inflight plastics by 50% by weight by 2025. “Today’s announcement celebrates the hard work and dedication of many teams across Southwest to meet these goals,” she says.

All good so far. But the devil is in the details.

Turbulence in the packaging plan.

The details disclose that this new cold cup is made from 93% non-plastic materials, with a pulp blend consisting of 75% bamboo and 25% paper, along with a polyethylene lining.

The bamboo and paper portions are sustainable gold; for example, the U.S. Green Building Council considers bamboo a "rapidly renewable material" because it reaches maturity for harvest in three to five years.

However, the problem is not with bamboo or paper, it’s the 7% plastic that Southwest’s cups can’t do without: the plastic liner.

No PE barrier, no bamboo cup for drinks.

Alas, that modest yet critical 7% renders the cup unrecyclable by materials recovery/recycling facilities aka MRFs.

Thus, the bamboo cup is in the same position as the plastic cup it replaces — it’s a single-use cup destined for landfill.

This is a familiar problem for paper packaging or, as here, its cousin wood-based packaging, when a barrier is required. So-called “paper bottles” face similar woes, relying on a thin plastic pouch or plastic liner that likewise makes them nonrecyclable.

The ambition is impressive and one that passengers will love, but with Nonstop Net Zero circularity as the ultimate destination, Southwest’s inflight cup needs further innovation before experiencing a smooth landing.