QANTAS: The World's First Zero-Waste Flight

The airline industry remains at the peak of top business enterprises worldwide. It has also proven itself to be one of the highest waste-producing industries. With the ongoing pressures of environmental threats, many businesses seek other solutions to contribute to better consumption of essentials. Here's how BioPak shared its vision for a circular economy by helping flight travel become waste-free.

Qantas Airways Limited is Australia's largest and most popular airline. It was established in 1920, making it the third-oldest airline still operating. Qantas has been catering both domestic and international flights across the globe, carrying more than 50 million passengers every year.

In 2017, the average person produced around 1.4 kilograms [3.1 pounds] of waste for each flight, totalling about 5.7 million tonnes [6.3 million pounds] of waste just for airlines for that year. Single-use plastic cutlery, food packaging and napkins are used by airlines because they are traditionally safer and more efficient than reusables.

Qantas alone produces 30,000 tonnes [33,000 pounds] of single-use waste. Almost all of this goes into landfill that doesn’t decompose until hundreds of years later. The food scraps that go with it also produce methane gas, an element 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

BioPak joins forces with the airline industry to further spread the word of a circular economy.

For flight QF739, which travels from Sydney to Adelaide, Qantas replaced the flight's single-use cups, cutlery, containers, and napkins with 1,000 compostable alternatives. Together with BioPak, Qantas introduced the following products for flight QF739:

• Compostable Clear BioPlastic BioCup
• Compostable Paper BioCup
• Compostable BioPlastic Cutlery
• Compostable Napkin
• Compostable Sugarcane Container
• Compostable BioPlastic Bags

The cups and cutlery are industrially compostable to Australian Standards AS4736. The napkins are both home and industrially compostable. The rest of the items are home and industrially compostable, meeting Australian Standards AS4736 and AS5810.

Qantas replaces 1,000 single-use food packaging and cutlery to compostable, waste-free alternatives

Qantas launched the world's first zero-waste flight in May 2019 using BioPak's compostable products. Passengers enjoyed their meal service using their eco-friendly cutlery and food packaging. After the service, the cabin crew, called the Green Team, collects the waste items using the compostable bioplastic bags.

Qantas also partnered with an industrial composting facility to collect their compostable products. The facility then turns this 'waste' into regenerative soil for farms all over Australia. That is the final step of the process that closes the loop, forming a circular economy.

From this single flight alone, Qantas saved 1,000 single-use items from going into landfill, preventing 34 kilograms [75 pounds] of waste. Flight QF739 will save 97,240 kilograms [215,000 pounds] of waste every year. Qantas aims to roll out this initiative for the rest of their flights, hoping to reduce waste from landfills by 75% in 2021.

This step marks the beginning of Qantas's transition to become the world's first zero-waste airline. Along with their current and continuing efforts to achieve cleaner and greener travels, Qantas has become a gold standard for other airlines worldwide.