LAX airport bans single-use plastic water bottles

Single use plastic water bottles are now banned from vendors in LAX. Photo / 123rf

Dragging your bags around a massive airport is thirsty work but if you were hoping to buy a plastic bottle of water at LAX, you’ll be out of luck.

Los Angeles International Airport, in the US, has banned single-use plastic water bottles in an effort to meet sustainability goals.

The ban has come from Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), an authority that operates LAX, a major international hub, and Van Nuys Airport (VNY), a smaller passenger airport in LA.

Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners signed off on the ban in June 2021 but vendors at the airport were given two years to change any purchasing contracts and sell inventory.

The Tom Bradley terminal at LAX. Photo / 123rf

Vendors can still sell water but it must be in packaging made from recyclable aluminium or glass.

This also gave LAWA time to install hydration stations around both airports, in collaboration with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, so customers can easily access drinking water.

LAWA chief executive Justin Erbacci said passengers should start packing reusable water bottles when they head through the airports.

“We encourage our guests to help us reach our goal of eliminating plastic waste at the airport by bringing a reusable water bottle and filling it up at one of our many hydration stations,” he said.

Halting the sale of single-use plastic water bottles is just one effort being made to help LA achieve its “Green New Deal”, which aims to make the city carbon-neutral by 2050.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said climate change was a great challenge facing LA, and LAWA’s ban was an important step towards combating it.

“Phasing out single-use plastic water bottles at LAWA facilities is an important step to reducing our environmental footprint and protecting the health and livelihood of all Angelenos,” she said.

Passengers will still receive bottled water on aircraft flying in and out of the airports and can bring their own plastic water bottles but they will not be sold inside the airports.

If LAX and VNY follow in the footsteps of San Francisco International Airport (SFO), other single-use plastic drinks will be next in line for a ban.

After banning single-use water bottles in August 2019, SFO has since disallowed soft drinks, juices and teas in single-use plastic packaging.

LAWA has not confirmed plans to phase out or ban other drinks that use single-use plastic packaging.