Emirates has created new sustainable blankets made from 100 percent recycled plastic bottles. The soft and warm blankets are made using ecoTHREAD™ and is available in Economy Class on long-haul flights.
Each Emirates ecoTHREAD blanket is made from 28 recycled plastic bottles. With the latest innovation, the bottles are recycled into plastic chips before being turned into yarn, creating a polar fleece material. The fine thread is then woven into soft blankets.
The environmentally friendly blankets were designed in partnership with Buzz, an inflight product specialist, and are part of Emirates’ attempts in product innovation and sustainability. Emirates already runs a green program on board recycling aluminum cans, plastic and glass bottles and clean paper products such as newspapers, magazines and cardboard cartons where possible.
By the end of 2019, Emirates ecoTHREAD blankets would have rescued 88 million plastic bottles from landfills – equivalent to the weight of 44 A380 aircraft. This initiative makes it the largest sustainable blanket program on board in the airline industry. In addition, the manufacturing process of using recycled polyethylene terephthalate reduces energy emissions by 70 percent.
ecoTHREAD is certified with the Intertek Green Leaf Mark by third party testing and certification body Intertek, independently verified to use 100 percent recycled materials.
Published in the February 2017 Edition of American Recycler News