Since the responsibility for a more sustainable future does not stop at 40,000 feet above sea level, the SWISS Hospitality & Catering Management Team founded a dedicated cabin crew ambassador team seven years ago. Together, 17 passionate and voluntary cabin crew members aim to improve inflight processes in terms of recycling and other related issues. Meet Fabio Pinna and Fabio Cardoso, two ambassadors shaping the future of responsible waste management in the skies.

What we do

As ambassadors, we act as the link between the Hospitality & Catering Management Team and our cabin crew colleagues, sharing knowledge about sustainability measures and promoting responsible practices inflight.

On board we test new procedures and, if these are successful, help to implement them into the regular processes. We have a close look at sustainable and efficient cycles of the products and materials and also share our knowledge with our colleagues on various topics, for example how to avoid food waste or to better and more efficiently recycle the waste on board. Through projects, roadshows and events, we generally raise awareness of our commitment towards sustainability and our innovations and make it easy for all cabin crew members to apply these on our flights.

Over the past years, we have witnessed remarkable changes on board, with one of the most significant being raising awareness and promoting recycling initiatives. For example, besides the regular so-called general “waste trolley”, we have introduced designated drawers for separately collecting recyclable waste, such as PET, Nespresso pads, cardboard, aluminium and glass.

This separation is essential for recycling to be possible in the first place and the separate drawers allow us to organise and store recyclable materials efficiently during the flight. Since we implemented this process, we only need one waste trolley for a European round-trip, where we used to need four. Upon arrival of the flight, we hand over the waste to our catering partners in Geneva and Zurich, who then transport it to a recycling plant.

Recycling in new dimensions

One of our recent milestones was to include beverage cartons in our recycling process. A typical beverage carton is made up of 75% cardboard, 20% polyethylene and 5% aluminium. A physical process is then required to separate these materials, which can be reused as cardboard boxes, newspapers or pallets. This new initiative, together with Gate Gourmet, has the potential to save up to 30 tonnes of waste each year. Recycling beverage cartons is not yet established throughout Switzerland, so SWISS is taking a significant step forward in this area of recycling.

Another milestone marked: recycling trial success in the USA

SWISS marked a further recycling milestone in March 2024 when it became one of the first non-US airlines to be given official permission to recycle its inflight waste materials such as glass, PET and aluminium cans after landing on US soil. The achievement follows a joint initiative with IATA, the airline industry’s umbrella association, thanks to which the US authorities have declared themselves willing to audit inbound recycling trials by non-US air carriers.

The trials concerned are designed to convince the US authorities that our recycling processes on board and at our local caterers do not present any health or pollutant threat. Zurich-Newark was selected as our first trial route. And the US authorities’ audit of our ZRH-EWR inflight waste recycling proved so positive that we were granted permission to continue with these processes and procedures as soon as the trials concluded. Our permission to recycle in Newark is just a first small step in the right direction. We still have a long way to go before we can perform such recycling at all our US destinations, because all these activities need to be separately assessed by the relevant local authorities.

In addition to our recycling efforts in North America, we recycle at all but six of our international outstations as well as Zurich and Geneva. And, as in Newark, we continue to strive to introduce such recycling at these remaining stations, together with local partners and authorities. Our ultimate aim: to ensure that our inflight waste can be recycled as much as possible at all our destinations systemwide.

Together, we are making a difference

What's truly inspiring is the rising collective willingness of everyone on board to engage in the recycling process. It's become a shared mission to minimise the impact of our waste and the eagerness and dedication of our colleagues serve as proof of our shared commitment to more awareness about the future.

The recycling figures show that our commitment is making a difference: in 2023, we, together with our caterer in Zurich, were able to recycle 64.6 tonnes of PET, 16.9 tonnes of aluminium cans, 204.7 tonnes of glass and 4.2 tonnes of Nespresso capsules.

But of course, recycling is just one piece of the puzzle of a large, circular product management process, and we are already starting to act in a resource-friendly manner in the first steps. For example, by using products and packaging already made from recycled materials, such as our Premium Economy amenity kits, PET bottles or the so-called "PaperWise" packaging of our SWISS Saveurs products in Economy Class on short-haul flights.