Delta Air Lines: small changes reduce impact in a big way

Delta Air Lines holds itself to a high standard of operating a sustainable airline, while protecting natural environments. Its approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) sustainability and responsibility leads to major choices – as well as small changes with great impact.

For example, in Delta One®, Delta's First Class, you can now find artisan-made amenity kits from Certified B Corporation apparel brand Someone Somewhere. Certified B Corporations do business in a particular way. Rather than operating purely to generate profit, they prioritise working for social and environmental good.

These handcrafted kits will eliminate five single-use plastic items such as zippers and packaging, reducing plastic use by up to 90,000 pounds on an annual basis.

Delta has also enhanced onboard offerings such as bedding made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, reusable and biodegradable service ware and premium canned wine. Together, the products will reduce onboard single-use plastic consumption by approximately 4.9 million pounds per year – that's roughly the weight of 1,500 standard-sized cars.

Eliminating waste

Another impactful decision was to start using compostable stirrers onboard and removing wrappers from cutlery and amenity kits, eliminating 30.000 pounds of waste annually. Also, recycling is a big thing with Delta Air Lines. Since 2007, the airline has recycled more than 3 million pounds of aluminum items that have been used onboard.

Did you know that uniform apparel can be recycled as well? In 2020, Delta sent 50,000 pounds of uniform apparel for waste-to-energy recovery, avoiding the landfill. There is more. Delta donated clothing articles to those in need, upcycled fabrics and retired seat leather into a special product line, and down-cycled remaining materials into products like home insulation and pet bed stuffing.