Finnair operates over 350 flights every day, flying close to 15 million passengers annually. The food and materials consumed on these flights have an impact on our environmental footprint. Our target is to reduce the use of single use plastic by 50% by the end of 2022, which means removing a total of 230 tonnes of plastic from our flights every year. We will also reduce food waste in our catering operations by 50% by the end of 2022. We are committed to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal number 12, to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Due to regulation, some parts of our waste management flows are not safe for material recycling or biogas production. All waste from inflight ending at our Helsinki hub, however, is re-used either as energy, heat, biogas, manure or material; zero waste ends in landfill.
What we will do
Our key actions for more sustainable material management in 2020
We are replacing plastic cutlery with a more sustainable choice
We strive to reduce food waste onboard by offering more pre-order choice for our customer
We are also donating extra amenity kits and meals to charity: Meals are donated to Yhteinen pöytä and extra amenity kits are given out to different charities.
What we have already done
Our key actions for more sustainable material management in 2019
Volume of waste was decreased by 5.5%, or about 254 tonnes, even as the number of passengers increased by 10%.
We reduced the use of single-use plastics in catering operations by 23 %. This was done by reducing the use of single packaged milk on board, introducing cardboard packaged hot meals to replace cPET (polyethylene terephthalate) casseroles, reducing plastic in amenity kits, and redesigning packaging of onboard sales.
We increased the recycling volumes of plastic in catering operations.
We included circular economy design principles to our services; slippers on our long-haul business class and salad containers are made from recycled PET.
