Reducing our waste through circularity
We recognise the impact of waste on the environment and are committed to addressing this through waste reduction projects, innovation and improved waste management.
The Group's ambition is to have zero single-use plastics by 2027 and zero general waste to landfill by 2030.
As part of our efforts, we're working with our employees, suppliers, customers, and State and Federal Governments to drive waste reduction initiatives, including:
- Minimising waste through more efficient inflight and ground operations,
- Introducing innovative product and packaging alternatives targeted at removing single-use plastics and reducing waste to landfill,
- Replacing plastic cutlery in our domestic network with responsibly sourced wooden cutlery, and
- Expanding waste material recovery pathways, including recycling, processing of organic material composting, specialty recycling trials, and exploring waste to energy.
By the end of FY23, we have removed or replaced more than 200 million single-use plastics from our operations since 2019.
We continue to identify opportunities to reduce plastics across our operations and in our inflight service where possible, while considering safety, hygiene, and various regulatory requirements.
This includes the introduction of compostable hot meal boxes on domestic flights, responsibly sourced wooden cutlery, bamboo drink stirrers, changes to our amenity kits, phasing out single-serve condiments in our lounges and trialling reduced thickness pallet wrap and protective sheeting made of 100% recycled plastic in Freight operations.
We are working with our suppliers to increase the use of recycled and renewable materials and consider the environmental impact in the design phase of our products.
Since 2011, the Qantas Group has been a signatory to the Australian Packaging Covenant, working to improve the sustainability of the packaging we use.
We also recycled 2,841 tonnes of waste in FY23, representing 23 per cent of total waste diverted, and we're aiming to reach 40 per cent. This will be supported through the reintroduction onboard recycling which was paused during the pandemic.
Important Information
Disclaimer: 1. This target excludes items required for medical or health and safety reasons.
Disclaimer: 2. This excludes quarantine waste, a highly regulated and specialised waste stream with limited waste diversion pathways. All waste associated with international ports (inbound and outbound) is treated as quarantine waste.
Disclaimer: 3. Total number of single-use plastics includes absolute reductions through removal of packaging or items in service, and product substitutions for items previously containing plastic materials. This figure represents a cumulative count from 2019 to end FY23.