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A terrible pair of complimentary headphones, a papery neck pillow and a plastic-wrapped, faux-fleece blanket. That’s generally what you can expect upon boarding just about any long-haul flight — a trio of poorly-made items gifted to you in the hopes that they’ll provide some small comfort.
But consider this: a typical passenger generates an average of 3.2 pounds of cabin waste across both short and long-haul international flights. That’s per a standard cabin waste audit methodology that was developed and tested at London’s Heathrow Airport in a pilot study in 2012 and 2013. Yet, despite having that knowledge, airlines went on to generate around 6.7 million tons of cabin waste in 2018.
Think that’s scary? By the International Air Transport Association’s estimate, cabin waste volumes could double in the next 10 years in the absence of smarter regulation. In other words, that trio of poorly-made items wind up contributing to the collective cabin waste on that long-haul flight in a way that isn’t very small at all.
The fact is, sustainability is a badge that many brands — airlines included — purport to wear proudly, but only a few are truly doing the work. Rumpl — a company you may not yet be acquainted with, but certainly should be — is one of those brands.
For the uninitiated, Rumpl is an outdoor brand that rose to popularity on the back of its original “Puffy” blanket — effectively a travel-sized sleeping bag-like blanket. It was abundantly clear from the beginning that the success of the brand was imminent, but the founders never stopped believing the fabric of the company they were building was as important, if not more so, than the blankets they were peddling.
In 2019, Rumpl completely redesigned their original line of blankets to use only 100% post-consumer recycled materials. A year later, they were managing to offset 100% of the company’s carbon footprint by purchasing offset credits. Today, the brand is recycling over five million discarded plastic bottles through their supply chain annually and donating 1% of all revenue to environmental non-profits.
“One of our brand’s core values is to ‘Look To The Future Responsibly,’ and consider that value in every business decision we make,” Rumpl’s website reads. And by all accounts they are.
The Best Travel Gifts for the Jet-Setters on Your List This Year
The best gifts for the one who’s perpetually planning their next tripI’ve owned my personal Rumpl blanket, a one-person-sized “Puffy” blanket, for quite some time now, and it’s no exaggeration to say that it’s never not in my carry-on. The first thing I do after I’ve boarded any international flight is stash the carrier-provided blanket, still in its plastic, under the seat in front of me in favor of my superior-in-every way Rumpl blanket. I’m hardly changing the world by not unwrapping it, but — in bringing my own blanket — I’m reducing the amount of cabin waste I’m generating. And, considering that I fly quite a bit as an extension of my job, that adds up over time, which is definitely something.
Of course, since its inception, Rumpl has expanded its offering to include an array of (sustainably-made) products beyond just blankets — each of them are guaranteed to help your personal conservation efforts along. Below, some of the items worth keeping in your carry-on at all times.
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