Southwest calls it progress. The truth is it’s greenwashing!

Southwest’s “Bamboo” Cup Has a plastic Problem.

This cup is NOT plastic free.
And it is not even being recycled.

Keep scrolling to find out what Southwest isn’t telling you.

Tell Southwest: Go Plastic-Free → Sign the petition on Change.org

The bamboo cup with its outer layer peeling away to reveal the plastic lining inside.

We cut one open. Here’s what’s inside.

Printed on the cup

Boohoo for
Southwest’s Bamboo.

A plastic cup with a fancy eco-name. It cannot be recycled in most systems, and it is still a single-use cup thrown away on every flight.

Plastic lined

Not recyclable

Still single use

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Southwest wrote a slogan they never earned.

What’s in
the cup?

Southwest says the cup is made with a blend of bamboo and paper pulp, and finished with a layer of polyethylene PLASTIC right where our drink touches, leaching into our bodies and the environment.

The plastic lining sends 100% of the cup to landfill. This cup is not even being recycled.

Cross-section of the cup showing bamboo, paper fibre and a plastic lining.

BambooOuter layer

Paper fiberMiddle layer

Polyethylene (PE) plastic liningInner layer

That plastic lining means the cup is never recycled, whatever bin it goes in.

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The lining is the whole story. This cup is not being recycled.

Southwhat!?

The airline, its chief executive and its sustainability lead all posted about the cup. Read all three. Zero mentions of the truth: PLASTIC!

Real posts.
Real claims.
Our context.

Southwest Airlines’ own LinkedIn post announcing the cup.

We’re raising a (cold) cup to cheers the launch of our new cup made with bamboo for inflight cold beverages. Southwest Airlines, LinkedIn

Bob Jordan, Southwest CEO, posting about the cup on LinkedIn.

Join me in raising a cup to cheers the launch of our new cold cups for inflight beverages, made with bamboo. Bob Jordan, President and CEO, Southwest Airlines, LinkedIn

Helen Giles posting about the cup rollout on LinkedIn.

Woohoo for bamboo! Last week, we rolled out our new inflight cups made with bamboo … across all aircraft. Helen Giles, then Southwest’s environmental sustainability lead, LinkedIn

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They told this sustainability story, but we don’t think they’ve earned a gold star here.

Plastic-free cups already exist.
Southwest is choosing corporate greed.

They are on the market today. Southwest chose a lined cup instead, and hands one to every passenger on every flight.

0.94 kg

of cabin waste per passenger, per flight, on IATA’s own audits.

Most

are never recycled, whatever bin they are put in.

Buried or burned

Most of it gets buried or burned, right along with Southwest’s “bamboo” cup.

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One cup, on every flight, every day of the year.

The real story
about plastic

Every piece of unnecessary plastic adds to a problem that already reaches our rivers, oceans and ecosystems worldwide.

Every river
ends somewhere.

1.15–2.41MTonnes a year

of plastic carried into the ocean by rivers, every year. Lebreton et al., Nature Communications, 2017

The Pacific, with the garbage patch marked.

1.6M km²The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

More than twice the size of Texas, and still growing. Lebreton et al., Scientific Reports, 2018

1.8 trillionPieces of plastic

floating in that one patch, weighing about 100,000 tonnes. Lebreton et al., Scientific Reports, 2018

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Nothing about a lined cup ends when the flight does.

We bet you didn’t know
there is most likely
plastic in your body

Plastic does not disappear. It breaks into fragments small enough to cross into the tissue of the people who threw it away, and researchers are now finding it everywhere they look.

A male and female body with microplastic fragments marked throughout.

You are already
carrying it.

77%Of adults tested

had microplastics in their blood, 17 of 22 healthy donors. Leslie et al., Environment International, 2022

A blood drop with plastic fragments magnified.

23%Contained polyethylene

of those same blood samples. Polyethylene is the plastic that lines the cup. Leslie et al., Environment International, 2022

A brain with plastic fragments magnified.

52 of 52Human brain samples

contained microplastics, with 50% more found in 2024 than in 2016. Nihart et al., Nature Medicine, 2025

A heart with an artery cross-section magnified.

4.5×Higher risk

of heart attack, stroke or death where microplastics were found in arterial plaque. Marfella et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 2024

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The lining outlasts the flight by several hundred years. Ask Southwest to stop making more of it.

It’s time to Be Plastic Free.

Sign the Petition on Change.org → Sign the petition to help drive positive change in the world.

Real change
flies further.

When major brands like Southwest commit to truly sustainable solutions, they inspire change across the entire industry, and help create a cleaner, healthier future for all of us.