Fibre

Repurposing Carbon Fibre waste to tackle aviation’s hidden polluter with innovative commercially viable airline meal packaging and pre-booking service.

Aviation’s contribution to global pollution through its emissions has led to increasing criticism. People, however, are less aware that catering is the industry’s hidden polluter, particularly through its high content of plastic and aluminium packaging. Regulations require food and packaging waste from most international flights to be incinerated. Alongside this, aircraft manufacturers are increasingly using Carbon Fibre as it is light-weight and strong, but currently, its end-of-life solutions are limited. FIBRE proposes an environmentally sound catering package in line with international regulations which is achieved by combining lightweight reusable recycled Carbon Fibre dishes with compostable packaging and an online meal pre-booking service. The design could reduce meal weight by 86% per passenger and carbon output by 581kg/CO2 per 1000 meals when analysed against recent industry statistics. This translates to potential annual savings of £7.1 -£53 million for airlines.