KLM and Creative Sustainable Practices

 After living in the Netherlands for the past year, something that has stuck out to me about the country is its focus on promoting sustainable practices that work to limit our impact on the world around us. While the country does so in conventional ways like creating accessible public transport and well maintained bike paths, I’ve noticed a number of creative sustainable practices that have really struck me for their innovativeness. One such practice is one performed by the Royal Dutch Airlines, or KLM. 

Just today, I flew from Amsterdam to Los Angeles aboard a KLM flight, and during this flight, all of us passengers were offered water in plastic water bottles rather than a cup. I must admit, when I was offered one, I was initially a bit disappointed because, like I said before, I’ve felt that the Dutch seem to prioritize sustainability to a pretty significant extent. However, as I was browsing through the movies and tv shows offered by the airlines, I came across a short documentary video surrounding how KLM is working to reduce harm to our environment. (link below) The video essentially explained that the airline actually collects all of these plastic bottles left behind from every flight, recycles them into a filament, and then uses that filament to 3D print tools used to service the airplanes. Overall, I was really quite impressed by such a creative way to reduce plastic waste and turn what would have been trash into a useful resource for the company. I think that it is innovations like these that are critical to combating pollution and climate change. And while KLM may be contributing to climate change in other aspects of their business (carbon emissions from the airplanes themselves), it's still a step in the right direction and can have applications beyond the airline industry.