Airline’s Blankets Have Kept Over 88 Million Plastic Bottles Away from Landfills

The warm blankets on long-haul flights of UAE’s Emirates Airlines are not made of cotton. Rather, each of these sustainable blankets saves 28 plastic bottles from ending up in landfills!

According to Emirates Catering senior vice president Joost Heymejjer, ecoTHREAD blankets have by the end of last year made use of 88 million plastic bottles – the equivalent of the weight of 44 A380 aircrafts – that would have otherwise ended up on landfills.

“The manufacturing process used to create an ecoThread blanket involves the recycling of polyethylene terephthalate [PET], which is the key factor that reduces energy emissions by 70 per cent,” says Heymejjer.

Entirely made with recycled plastic bottles, the blankets “last for around three months”, he adds, after which they are used “for charitable purposes”.