AIRLINES & ALLIANCES

Virgin introduces aluminium vodka bottles onboard: Sapling Spirits takes to the skies

The brand’s wider focus on regenerative farming is important. Employing farming methods that creates healthier soil, captures more CO2 and increases biodiversity serves as a great example of what other businesses can achieve. It’s also an important reminder of the broader ways our consumption habits impact the planet. I hadn’t made the connection between alcohol and farming before!

On the back of more than 15 years of pioneering sustainable aviation fuel developments, it’s wonderful to see the multi-pronged approach Virgin Atlantic is taking on sustainability. I also love how Virgin Atlantic support start-ups with its on-board suppliers. Nice Drinks is a brilliant example, as a Virgin StartUp supported company and the UK’s fastest growing canned wine brand.

A few other changes that Virgin Atlantic have making on-board includes: 

• Serving drinks in cups made from 95% recycled plastic. 

• Making its amenity kits from paper products, which saves more than 9.4 tonnes of plastic a year.  

• Replacing its plastic headphone wrapping with paper charity donation envelopes, which saves 16 tonnes of plastic a year. 

• Swapping to cardboard cutlery in Economy, which removes the single-use plastic weight equivalent of 18 jet engines a year. 

• Producing its famous Vivienne Westwood uniform from a yarn that’s composed of 25% recycled plastic bottles. 

• Swapping the plastic drinks stirrers with a sustainable bamboo alterative, which has saved 6.5 tonnes of single-use plastic. 

• Serving its Economy hot meals in a container made from the plant waste left from juiced sugar cane.  

Sourcce: Virgin