21,500 beds, 43,000 pillows, one concerned cruise line
When we think about a cruise, many images come to mind. Dining, entertainment, casino action or shore excursions might be our first thoughts. On board, cruise lines are fond of dazzling us with the numbers too. They use 14,000 pounds of Beef, 4,000 pounds of Fish or 22,000 eggs in an average week on a 2,700-passenger ship that has 1000 cabins. How they handle the bedding is probably not one of the things we think of first. Lucky for us, cruise lines do.
Fleet-wide, Celebrity Cruises has about 21,500 beds using about 43,000 pillows which need to be replaced from time to time. Doing so takes up a lot of space in land fills. To extend the life of an average pillow, which can reduce significant deposits of old pillows in landfills, Celebrity uses a machine that kills bacteria, sanitizes and deodorizes the filling, provides fresh, clean pillows and allows Celebrity to significantly reduce pillow waste.
Called the Pillow-Vac, the machine has a considerable impact on Celebrity’s efforts to minimize waste, which has a positive impact on the environment as well as on cost savings.
“The cost and space required to dispose of large numbers of pillows on a regular basis is counter to Celebrity Cruises‘ environmental principles,” said Jamie Sweeting, Vice President of Environmental Stewardship, Celebrity Cruises. “The installation of the Pillow-Vac not only helps to reduce this waste, but also represents another example of taking an innovative approach to the way that we use materials on our ships and lessen the impact of these materials on the world around us.”
Celebrity Cruises installed the Pillow-Vac machine on nine of its 10 ships earlier this year, extending the lives of its pillows and reducing waste in the process. Pillows are cut open and emptied into a tumble chamber. In the chamber, rotating brushes expose everything to the germicidal light while breaking up clumps that have formed. The machine fluffs up the filling (feathers/down/loose fiber/shredded foam) and sifts out any dust trapped in the pillow. More new filling may be added to bring it back to the density of a new pillow. At the end of the cycle, all the filling is blown back into a brand-new, 100% cotton feather- and down-proof ticking. The entire process takes an average of three to four minutes per pillow.
“The logistics to renovate pillows on a cruise ship is easy,” said president John Harris, Harris Pillow Supply. “We simply designate to a specific ship each order of new pillow ticking and fill needed to renovate the pillows, and then ship it to a Celebrity warehouse for ease.”
The Pillow-Vac extends the life of an average pillow, which can reducing deposits of old pillows in landfills. An ozone-emitting germicidal light, used to kill bacteria, sanitizes and deodorizes the filling, provides fresh, clean pillows and allows Celebrity to significantly reduce pillow waste.
Pillows are cut open and emptied into a tumble chamber. In the chamber, rotating brushes expose everything to the germicidal light while breaking up clumps that have formed. The machine fluffs up the filling (feathers/down/loose fiber/shredded foam) and sifts out any dust trapped in the pillow. More new filling may be added to bring it back to the density of a new pillow. At the end of the cycle, all the filling is blown back into a brand-new, 100% cotton feather- and down-proof ticking. The entire process takes an average of three to four minutes per pillow.
The installation of Pillow-Vac machines on nearly all of its ships (except tiny 92-guest mega-yacht Celebrity Xpedition), aligns with Celebrity’s ongoing Save the Waves environmental program charged to reduce the consumption of materials, recycle as many waste streams as possible, and responsibly dispose of any remaining wastes.
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