Emirates offer recycled plastic bottles blankets in economy class

Ever heard that plastic bottles are being recycled and converted to sustainable blankets! Yes, this is true and going to soon become a reality in the commercial aviation industry. Leading Middle East carrier Emirates Airlines, which is headquartered in Dubai, has recently announced it is soon going to offer new sustainable blankets to its customers on long-haul economy class flights. These blankets have been produced from 100 percent recycled plastic bottles.

A spokesperson of Emirates Airlines said that ecoTHREAD patented technology is being used to make the blankets. The process involves recycling bottles into plastic chips before turning them into yarn. A polar fleece material is created, and soft blankets are then woven with the fine thread. For making each blanket, at least 28 recycled plastic bottles are used.

Media reports quoting the airline’s spokesperson said that by offering the environment-friendly blankets to its customers Emirates Airlines has demonstrated its commitment to sustainability and product innovation. It may be noted that Emirates Airlines entered into partnership with inflight product specialists Buzz for designing the environment-friendly blankets.

According to the reports, Emirates Airlines has already implemented a green programme on board its flights. Under this programme, glass and plastic bottles, aluminium cans, and clean paper products such as cardboard cartons, magazines and newspapers are being recycled where possible.

The airline’s initiative is being currently termed as the largest sustainable blanket programme in the civil aviation industry in recent memory. By creating its ecoTHREAD blankets, Emirates Airlines hopes that 88 million plastic bottles would be recovered from landfills by the end of 2019. Such a huge number of bottles would equivalent to the weight of 44 Airbus A380 aircrafts.

With the introduction of the ecoTHREAD blanket, Emirates Airlines is now seen to have fulfilled the recent comforted overhaul in all its three classes. A plus, faux sheep-skin blanket was introduced by the airline in first class, while the business class cabins offered soft duvets to the premium travelers.