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Alaska Airlines teams up with Ridwell for sustainable inflight recycling

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Charu Jain Senior Vice President, Merchandising and Innovation | Alaska Airlines

Ridwell, a Seattle-based recycling company, has partnered with Alaska Airlines to reduce waste on flights. This collaboration involved collecting recyclables during 70 regional test flights operated by Horizon Air, a sister carrier of Alaska Airlines. The effort resulted in the responsible recycling of 17.1 pounds of films and multi-layer plastics.

Zoie B., a flight attendant with nearly two decades of experience, participated in the initiative as part of Alaska Airlines' Green Team business resource group. She expressed enthusiasm for the project, stating: "I was motivated to test for Ridwell because I love the service they provide. I firsthand see all the waste that comes from inflight service (although we’ve gotten a lot better) and I’d love to see us continue to improve on this."

Alaska Airlines is noted as the first airline to partner with Ridwell for handling hard-to-recycle waste onboard, such as snack packaging like Biscoff cookie wrappers and pretzel bags. Scott Coughlan, Environmental Sustainability Program Manager at Alaska Airlines, emphasized the partnership's significance: "Through our partnership with Ridwell, Alaska Airlines is pioneering innovative solutions to reduce plastic waste from our inflight service."

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Ridwell CEO Ryan Metzger highlighted the impact of this collaboration: “We were thrilled to see how much of the waste generated on flights could be recycled through our partnership with Alaska... It was great to see another Seattle-based company take steps toward making zero waste flights a reality.”

The feasibility test successfully diverted 17.1 pounds of plastics from landfills using Ridwell's recycling methods over 70 flights. Flight attendants collected trash in special Ridwell bags, resulting in 28 bags used during the test.

Chevy P., another Horizon Air flight attendant involved in the project, appreciated the sustainability efforts: "As someone who already recycles, it was just nice knowing that our efforts were being pushed even further toward sustainability.”

Ridwell specializes in finding ways for people to recycle items not typically accepted curbside and has helped save over 25 million pounds of waste from landfills since its inception.

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