In 2025, we worked across the IAG group to develop an updated circular economy strategy and set of targets that better reflect our operation and the areas we’re most able to influence. This has resulted in three new targets to be achieved by 2030:
- 50% reduction in single-use plastic (SUP) across our onboard products on a kg/ASK basis
- 10% waste reduction per unit of activity across our onboard, properties, and operations
- 80% of materials to be correctly segregated throughout our properties and operations
These targets will have a baseline year of 2025 and will build on progress already achieved in the last few years.
Throughout 2025 we focused on:
- programmes to increase the amount of waste diverted from disposal from on board our aircraft, generated by our engineering operations and within our facilities
- initiatives to reduce waste per passenger on board, waste per maintenance hour in our engineering and maintenance operations, and waste per person in our offices
- working to reduce the amount of single use plastic (SUP) used on board our aircrafts, in our lounges and throughout our offices
Removing Single-Use Plastics On Board
When we established our SUP baseline in 2022, we calculated that 2113 tonnes of SUP are used across the customer experience annually, and that 40% of our single-use items are made completely of SUP.
We recognise that removing SUP products is a significant challenge, and we collaborate closely with our suppliers to reduce plastic packaging across our products, whilst ensuring we assess the sustainability credentials of any alternative packaging.
In 2025, we removed an additional 13.7 tonnes of SUP from on board. Since 2022, that totals to 392 tonnes of SUP annually, representing 18% of our baseline. Examples of how we’re making change can be found below.
Estimated annual savings of
SUP per year (in tonnes)
2.1
Nov 2025
Plastic wrap removed from oven gloves
1.4
Oct 2025
Plastic wrap removed from the First day blanket
10.2
July 2025
Hot towel plastic reduction
140
Nov 2024
Paper-banded World Traveller blankets
1.1
Aug 2024
Plastic Club Kitchen pots to kraft paper
21
Aug 2024
Plastic World Traveller starter pot to kraft paper
25
June 2024
Club World amenity kit SUP reduction
3.5
May 2024
Plastic dressing pots to kraft paper
12.6
May 2024
Lemon pots to kraft paper
3.6
April 2024
Paper-banded Club Europe blankets
2.9
Feb 2024
Paper-banded Crew blankets
120
2022
Birchwood cutlery in World Traveller
37
2022
Paper-banded Club Word blankets
12
2022
Paper-banded World Traveller Plus blankets
- Our commitment to reducing plastic waste has been recognised with a Gold Award at the 2025 Green Apple Awards, highlighting our dedication to more sustainable practices and lowering environmental impact.
- In 2025, we started incorporating Social Plastic®, a recycled plastic feedstock, into our Club and Children’s Headsets. This material is sourced from plastic waste recovered from coastal areas and collected by local communities. To date, we’ve integrated 897.5 kg of Social Plastic® into our headsets, which is equivalent to approximately 44,800 plastic bottles recovered from coastlines.
- In 2025, we replaced the plastic-lined boxes in our head office salad bar with alternatives made from seaweed and other plant-based materials. Created by The Earthshot Prize finalist Notpla, the boxes offer a natural, biodegradable alternative to conventional plastic packaging.
- We continue to encourage reusable habits by offering a 50p discount on any hot drink for customers who bring their own cups on EuroTraveller.
- In 2025, the BA Better World Community Fund supported Project Plastocene at Plymouth Marine Lab to help research the hidden environmental costs of plastic and ensure these impacts are embedded in future official lifecycle assessments.
Reducing Food Waste
Reducing onboard food waste is a key priority to ensure we’re utilising resources responsibly. In 2025, we’ve continued to leverage AI to monitor food waste and adjust our menus based on data-driven insights.
We’ve also introduced a new catering order system, that more accurately predicts the number and types of meals required for each flight, helping us reduce waste. These initiatives, along with other operational improvements, contributed to a 17% reduction in waste at our London Heathrow catering unit compared to 2024.
Through our BA Better World Community Fund, we support Surplus to Supper, a charity that tackles the gap between food waste and food poverty locally. Surplus to Supper collects surplus food from businesses, and redistributes it to charities, transforming it into meals, and even running a market for local communities. In December, we teamed up with our catering suppliers to donate 5,000 Christmas meals to the charity to support communities in need.
Category 1 International Catering Waste IATA Joint Statement
A significant obstacle preventing airlines from recycling or donating waste food is the legislation on Category 1 International Catering Waste. This requires all waste food to be disposed of in specific ways including by incineration or deep landfill.
However, IATA previously commissioned an investigation into the risks of cabin food waste, finding a negligible risk either to human or animal health from this waste.
We’re challenging the legislation and actively engaging with other airlines on this issue. We’ve signed a joint statement which advises that the European Commission undertake a risk assessment of international catering waste rules.
The adoption of smarter international catering waste regulation would allow us to use more sustainable methods of food waste disposal such as anaerobic digestion. This would also enable us to recover and recycle a much greater amount of packaging.
Circular Economy Principles
We’re looking for opportunities across our operations and supply chain to refine our product specifications and keep our resources in use for as long as possible. This includes considering innovative product design and maximising the re-use and recycling of products through partnerships with our suppliers.
Aircraft Recycling
There comes a time when certain parts of an aircraft reach the end of their operational life. Today our engineers are salvaging and repurposing parts where possible. For example, as our Boeing 787 aircraft undergo maintenance, seats, in-flight entertainment components and other elements are carefully dismantled and assessed. Each part in suitable condition is repurposed and reintroduced into our inventory, ready for use on operational aircraft.
In 2025, we teamed up with eCube to set a new benchmark for reducing aircraft waste once a plane is taken out of service. The project involved weighing the aircraft upon landing, documenting each stage of disassembly, and finally recording the recycling of the hull.
In a first for the industry, 83% of one of our A320s was reused, repurposed or recycled, giving the aircraft a second life through a fully-documented and repeatable process.
Expanding recycling streams
from our laundry unit
We have successfully diverted 26.8 tonnes of materials from incineration by recycling blankets, pyjamas, slippers, cot covers, child seat covers, and oven gloves from our laundry units.
Upcycling our Julien Macdonald Uniform
We have upcycled unworn pieces from our former Julien Macdonald uniform collection into practical, reusable products, giving new purpose to materials that would have otherwise gone to waste.
In total, 9,262 uniform items weighing 4,392.77 kg, were transformed into products that included picnic blankets, document holders and luggage tags. The document holders were distributed to visitors to the Open House Cinema at BST Hyde Park and the luggage tags and remaining document holders are being gifted to colleagues as a token of recognition.
We also partnered with a UK-based social impact enterprise, The R Collective, donating more than 7,000 metres of uniform fabric to be used for upcycling projects, including community and training projects.
Recycling
In 2025, in collaboration with UK airlines, the Department for Transport, and the Animal and Plant Health agency, we created the UK’s first onboard recycling guidance, now published on gov.uk. This has enabled us to set a consistent approach to onboard recycling in line with the Category 1 International Catering Waste legalisation.
This guidance has also allowed us to restart recycling into London Gatwick in collaboration with DHL and segregate more materials from incineration. We’re also working closely with London Heathrow to implement processes at our hub airport.
Colleague Engagement
Our sustainability learning programme is tailored to individual job roles, with targeted circular economy content for cabin crew, engineering, operational and officed-based colleagues. Circularity modules are also integrated into cabin crew onboarding, as well as First and Club World training programmes.
We’re also leveraging augmented reality training where we can. For example, we’ve created a programme based on our top ten maintenance risks where our engineers can practice crucial techniques. Instructors can virtually support the engineers and see the task through their eyes, decreasing errors and associated waste.
As well as increasing colleague engagement to improve recycling and the re-use of products, almost 400 crew colleagues are War on Waste champions. They act as experts in reducing onboard waste.
Tap on the video below to find out more from War on Waste champion John, who designed an app to assist our colleagues with their recycling efforts. The recycling app is available to all crew, giving them quick and easy guidance on what they can recycle, where they should store it, and best practice guidelines.
Yearly Statistics
Onboard waste at hub airports
2025: 18,716
Onboard catering waste including volumes later recycled and recovered at Heathrow and Gatwick.
Measurement: tonnes
2019 Baseline: 17,837
Onboard waste per passenger at hub airports
2025: 0.5
Onboard catering waste generated per passenger, including volumes later recycled and recovered at Heathrow and Gatwick. Passenger numbers are based on those inbound and outbound passengers who have their waste processed at London Heathrow and Gatwick.
Measurement: Kg/passenger
2019 Baseline: 0.5
Overall waste
2025: 38,989
Includes waste from all streams – onboard, office, cargo and maintenance waste – and an extrapolation of waste processed at overseas caterers.
Measurement: tonnes
2019 Baseline: 35,610
Overall re-used, recycled and recovered
2025: 12%
Proportion of waste re-used, recycled and recovered (excluding incineration, landfill and other disposal operations).
Measurement: %
2019 Baseline: 15%