Green sky thinking
bpi.visqueen, part of British Polythene Industries (BPI) PLC, has designed a bespoke 100% recycled polythene bag for British Airways to assist the airline with its on-board recycling programme.
British Airways takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously and through its One Destination corporate responsibility programme has set challenging targets to reduce its impact on the environment. One of the airline’s aims is to increase levels of on-board waste recycling. In order to help meet this challenge, bpi.visqueen was tasked with designing a bag which could be attached to onboard galley carts and used by cabin crew to collect items for recycling.
Launched on short haul routes from Heathrow last year, onboard can recycling was extended to inbound British Airways long haul flights earlier this year. Prior to being launched the system was trialed and developed with input from cabin crew who helped shape the recycling process. Key to the success of the system is the design of the recycling bags in which the cans are collected. In order to fit within the confines of the galley area the bags were designed to fit the width of a galley cart and to be secured using integral tie handles.
These durable recycling bags are manufactured by bpi.visqueen’s sister company, bpi.recycled products who specialize in recovering post use polythene and recycling it into second life applications including refuse sacks, street furniture and landscape products. The British Airways recycling bags are custom-made in a distinctive green colour and bear the ‘One Destination – responsible air travel’ logo.
Gary Meades, Manager Environment at BA commented: At British Airways we have a target to reduce the amount of waste to landfill by recycling as much waste as we possibly can. Working with our catering partners we continually strive to reduce the amount of catering waste produced from flights and initiatives like onboard can recycling make a significant contribution to this effort.” He continues: “Working with the team at bpi.visqueen, we were able to design a lightweight but highly durable recycling bag that blends seamlessly into the existing onboard catering infrastructure.”
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For more information on this story, contact Wayne Mohammed at PRECISION on 0161 638 8714 or e-mail: wayne@weareprecision.com
Editors Notes:
- bpi.visqueen, a division of British Polythene Industries (BPI), operates from a network of sites across the UK, including production facilities in Ardeer, Greenock and Flint.
- bpi.visqueen’s extensive product portfolio includes high performance bags, heavy-duty sacks, pallet protection products and speciality wide width films. These products are employed by some of Europe’s biggest names in agriculture, horticulture, pharmaceutical and industrial applications.
- bpi.recycled products is Europe’s largest recycler of polythene with the ability to reprocess in excess of 80,000 tonnes each year of post-use material from commercial, retail, industrial and agricultural markets across six Environment Agency Accredited Sites.
- As a result of its commitment to operating in a sustainable way and to minimising the environmental impact of all of its activities, BPI won the Best Green Large Company category at the 2010 Scottish Green Awards and the Sustainability Award at the 2011 Scotland plc awards.
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