Do recycled pilot's count ?:D
Fred

Bull Feces. You're laying it all on the pilots but aren't considering that we wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for the payload. Technically, it's the customers' carbon footprint. Any participation in society as a consumer has an overall impact on the environment and it is up to each one of us to minimize our impact through our individual conduct as well as through our vote. Being a professional pilot is not in contradiction to being environmentally conscious. It's a job and our infrastructure demands air travel.

Yes, airplane carbon emissions are substantial. However, it is more efficient to fly 300 people from coast to coast than to divide those people in enough Ford Explorers to make the trip

Rough estimate of fuel burned by a 767-300 (configured for 270 pax) on a transcon;
80,000 lbs /6.72 = 11905 gallons.

Enough Ford Explorers to carry 270 people/roughly 4 per vehicle = 68
Approximate hwy mileage on a Ford Explorer 16 (considering stops, the actual average would be much lower so 16 mpg is liberal estimate in your favor)

New York to Los Angeles road miles 2800
2800/16mpg = 175 gallons X 68 Explorers = 11900 gallons

TOTAL GALLONS OF FUEL
By Explorer 11900
By 767 11905

One must also factor in the impact of multi day travel.
40 hours of driving/ 8 hours per day = 5 days
transcon in a 767, less than 5 hours

Also, I believe that Jet A burns cleaner than gasoline

I sleep fine at night.

where Styrofoam plates and cups, and plastic forks were used..then thrown away..to mingle in landfills for the next...ooooh...4000 years :)

If this is what's left of your argument, I'll claim victory now. :D

All jokes aside, nobody is a winner and nobody is a loser. The world will be a better place if all of us are well informed. Will some still choose a destructive course, you can bet on it. But overall, given all the information I think human kind likes living. And most people want to leave a nice place to live for future generations as well.

So the rest of the population gets coffee/water in a plastic cup which then gets thrown away (or best case scenario, recycled) anyway? What is gained by this solution? This is where the problem comes in with the envioronmental agenda. Restrictions are forcefully imposed on everyone that don't solve the actual problem anyway. We recycle more now than ever in this country, and I hope we can continue to make reasonable progress via curbside programs, etc. Yet we've never heard more about how horribly we are treating our planet. I don't get it. There's obviously a larger goal in mind here, and I don't want to even speculate what it actually is.

As a side note I was actually thinking of this exact issue on my commute the other day and wondered when we'd start seeing can crushers in the galleys, so that they could be put in a separate bin/bag to be recycled. Good thread.

That's just me exercising a dry sense of humor. ;)

A mind is a terrible thing to waste:
 

I hate to see another intelligent pilot sucked in by the save-the-planet-from-global-warming hysteria. Do a little research and you'll learn that the "science" behind this theory doesn't hold water. The whole movement is nothing more than a hoax based on easily manipulated computer models. Two facts for you: 1) The earth has been cooling and winters have been colder for the last few years, and 2) Green icons such as Al Gore and Richard Branson exempt themselves from the onerous regulations they want you to live by. Gore left the lights on all night during "earth hour" last week and flies around the world in a private jet preaching this nonsense, offsetting his "sin" buy buying "carbon credits" from his own company. Branson owns two private islands in the Carribean and a fleet of carbon belching airliners. What hypocrisy!

Please, go fly your jet, enjoy life, and stop worrying about this BS.

Q: Does your airline recycle?

A: Who cares? It's garbage. I put it in a plastic bag, and I stop thinking about it.

When did I ever mention Al Gore or Richard Branson? What hysteria? All I asked is whether or not your airlines recycle. Why do so many people take offense to this question and attack me cause I must be some crazy leftist brainwashed poor soul. So I think its a good idea to re-use the natural resources we take from the earth, why does this have to come with an agenda? Can't I just choose to be a better patron of our environment without having someone like you tell me about my "agenda".

So how would you have me use my mind otherwise? Should I go out and try to figure out how I can make as much money as possible, no matter how much harm it does to anyone and everyone around me? If I am wasting my mind by thinking about my own effect on our environment what would you think would be a valuble use of brainpower? Since when has being a considerate human, thinking about people other than himself a waste. You ought to save up all that hate you have for something more important to the world, like hating the corporations that pay thier workers $1.40 a day to make your Nikes and sell them to you for $90. Think about that a minute before you start hating the way I have wasted my mind.

That's the key. Hate. We need to hate companies and people. Especially when they make money. Good idea. I'm ready for a thread lock on this one.