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Recycled Edition: If You Wear Out This Planet, Where Are You Going To Live?

sheaser
Frequent Flyer B

While our resident podcaster, Steve Heaser, takes some much-needed time off, we took the liberty of "recycling" his podcast all about, well, recycling.

 

This episode of Red Belly Radio is all about the new recycling effort that Southwest Airlines has launched. This is by far the biggest and most wide-spread recycling effort in our history.

The event kicked off with the distribution of blue recycle bins for everyone who works in our headquarters. Our partner, Allied Waste, was on hand to explain recycling to Employees and also held a contest to guess how many pounds were in a “bale” of aluminum—pictured right. Using the comments section, guess how much that thing weighs. I’ll put the answer in a comment in a couple of days.

I speak with Marilee McInnis, from the Southwest Airlines Green Team, Mitzi Green (her real last name, not some recent environment stunt) who manages our facility maintenance at our headquarters campus, and Eileen Wargo from Allied Waste.

This is about Phase I, so look for more recycling efforts systemwide and on Southwest planes as the different phases roll out.

to listen to the podcast: click here.

9 Comments
metanoi
Explorer C
Great Job! I look forward to seeing recycling onboard as it pains me to see that much aluminum and plastic mixed in with regular trash.
ratchet
Explorer C
I am excited to hear this news and I agree with Brian with all the plastic cups that you go through on a flight it is good to know that they will now be put to good use instead of being thrown away.
Rick_Sauter1
Explorer C
Kudos on the new plan! Every company / organization in the US (and world) should look at where they can try and make a difference (if they aren't already). Keep up the good work SW!!!
Julie_Hart
Explorer C
It looks like it's about 10 pounds because it takes A LOT of crushed cans to make that big a block! I congratulate Southwest for doing their part on recycling!!! Way to go!!!
stove
Explorer A
I'll say that bale is about 500 lbs. I'll bet that machine can squeeze a LOT of cans into that square.
ace9576
Explorer C
It would be awesome to recycle the majority of the cups and cans onboard flights these days. Seems like so much waste that we can eliminate. Wonderful job! Bradley
sheaser
Frequent Flyer B
As promised. The bail of aluminum cans weighs 1160 lbs. It is worth $1000. (You do the math.)
Travel_India
Explorer C
This is really a nice effort of recycling....this is really a admirable work...... Travel India
cheap_building_
Explorer C
Recycled Edition: If You Wear Out This Planet, Where Are You Going To Live? Thanks for sharing