Recycling the Weight of 165 737-700s in Four Years
Recycling the Weight of 165 737-700s in Four Years
If you’ve ever wondered how Southwest is doing its part to make a positive difference, that headline should help answer that question. Since 2008, Southwest Airlines has recycled the weight equal to nearly 165 Boeing 737-700 aircraft with our co-mingled recycling efforts.
Operating with a green filter is important to us, and through our co-mingled recycling program, Mother Earth gets to benefit since we are diverting those soda cans and newspapers from our landfills, minimizing future greenhouse gas emissions, and preserving raw materials as well as the energy and water required for processing raw materials. On top of all that, the rebates we receive for recycling funds our recycling program so it’s cost neutral to Southwest and we are able to purchase renewable energy-driven equipment like the solar compactor we installed at the Las Vegas Provisioning Station last year.
The weight of 165 red bellies is a lot, but we’re not stopping there. Over the next four years, we aim to increase the quantity of materials recycled onboard our aircraft and in our facilities by 2.5 percent per year for a total of ten percent improvement by 2015.
