Virgin Australia has announced that plastic straws and stirrers have been removed from its inflight and Lounge operations, demonstrating the airline’s commitment to implementing sustainable solutions for its customers.

The move will see more than 260,000 plastic straws and 7.5 million plastic stirrers a year removed from operations and replaced with paper straws and bamboo stirrers.

This is just one step that Virgin Australia is undertaking to ensure that its products and services are aligned with greener solutions.

Virgin Australia General Manager of Group Sustainability, Rob Wood, said that introducing paper straws and bamboo stirrers, although being small changes, will have a positive impact both in the air and on the ground.

“We are proud to have eliminated plastic straws and stirrers from our services. This is part of our focus to improve the sustainability of the packaging we use as a business and to reduce the amount of single-use plastic across our inflight and Lounge offerings.

“As an airline, we have a responsibility to contribute to sustainable initiatives that will benefit the environment and removing plastic straws and stirrers is an important step in the right direction. We know there are still improvements to be made, but we are committed to continuing to look for ways to improve the environmental footprint of our operations,” he said.

Many of Virgin Australia’s ‘green’ initiatives are championed by the airline’s Sustainability Ambassadors who act as eyes and ears across the business. Virgin Australia currently has more than 100 passionate Sustainability Ambassadors across its business, including pilots, cabin crew, legal specialists and guest services officers.

Paper straws and bamboo stirrers are now available across all of Virgin Australia’s Lounges and inflight services.