Along with flying millions of passengers, Delta Airlines flies millions of pounds of plastic drink cups, but that will soon end as the airline tests and then adopts new paper cups for its inflight service of soft drinks and cocktails.
The airline says it’s in the final testing stage with its new cups, which are not the same as its current hot drink cups. For the moment, they’re being used on transcontinental domestic routes and a few international ones, but will be on all flights by 2025.
Aside from the environmental advantage of eliminating single-use plastic, there’s a weight and therefore fuel saving—and, it turns out, the new cups are easier for flight attendants to stack and separate, making inflight service more efficient.
