Centerlines - March 2009 - (Page 31) ENVIRONMENT Recycling: Where Airports Gather their Recyclables Administrative offices Airlines Cargo Airport Sectors Concessions Construction and demoliton Maintenance operations Others Parking Public spaces Construction debris Food/coffee grounds Glass Hazardous waste Metal Other Paper Plastics 0 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Wood Number of airports recycling from each sector Source: 2008 ACI-NA Airport Environmental Programs Survey Recycling: What Gets Recycled at the Airport Aluminum Cardboard 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 Number of airports recycling each type of material Source: 2008 ACI-NA Airport Environmental Programs Survey newspaper from employees, and then expanded to the terminal area, said Viki Matthews, Tucson’s public relations administrator and self-anointed “recycling queen.” Subsequent program additions included cardboard and cans. Tucson recently added plastic and glass bottles to a recycling stream that includes just about everything imaginable. The Next Frontier: The Airlines Another recycling frontier is the airlines. Tucson reported reasonable compliance. “Half the airlines actively participate in recycling paper, bottles, and cans from their in-flight and local station activities. The other half participate intermittently, mainly from in-flight waste,” Matthews said Seattle reported that off-airplane recycling was challenging initially, and that standardized and consistent service; for example, the level of co-mingling of recyclables permitted, is one key to compliance. It has been working with other western Beyond Paper San José recently turned its sights on concession kitchens: A recent self-audit determined that 72 percent of concession waste is compostable and 15 percent, mostly plastics, is recyclable. Seattle’s concessionaires recycle 12 tons of coffee grounds and 1,000 gallons of cooking oil a month — not bad, considering that the airport saves $125 per ton of recycled material. Restaurants at Nashville are recycling cooking oil, but waste food recycling is in the future. Still to enter general use is compostable serviceware, like the corn-based polymer cups Seattle provides in its conference rooms. “The compostable serviceware industry is very new and there is a lot of learning going on,” Fox noted. airports, including those in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Vancouver on a regional standard so airlines, such as Delta, Alaska and Continental, can know what to expect at the airports they serve. Nashville reports some airline participation. However, San José’s Hiestand said, “I am trying to get at the low-hanging fruit, and airlines are a few items down.” Is There a Market? The current recession has hampered some community recycling programs. Since U.S. consumers are Recycling Construction Waste The practice of reusing or recycling airport construction waste got started in many airports before their trash recycling programs. Some examples: • Nashville is recycling 900,000 square feet of carpeting as part of its terminal renovation. • Tucson has long recycled asphalt material to make new airside perimeter roadways. • San José contractors are diverting 99 percent of construction debris from the new consolidated rental cars facility, 97 percent from its Terminal B construction and 99 percent from its Terminal A rehabilitation. • The Winnipeg Airport Authority and the Canadian Air Force 17 Wing, which share the airport, saved several hundred thousand dollars by turning concrete waste from 17 Wing’s apron rehab into fill needed for the airport’s terminal expansion. www.aci-na.org | CENTERLINES 31 http://www.aci-na.org
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