Recycling is grounded by airlines
March 3rd, 2007 by Eric
Just about the only concession that airlines are still willing to give away for free these days are soft drinks. And they do give away a lot. If you assume that these cans and bottles get recycled, you would be wrong. According to a recent Natural Resources Defense Council report, 80% get thrown away. Put in perspective:
The U.S. airline industry discards enough aluminum cans each year to build 58 Boeing 747 airplanes… and discarded 9,000 tons of plastic in 2004 and enough newspapers and magazines to fill a football field to a depth of more than 230 feet.
The airlines’ recycling rate is at 17% compared to the national average of 31%. By getting their recycling efforts up to our own standards:
Enough energy would be saved each year to power 20,000 U.S. households, and carbon emissions would be reduced by an amount equal to removing 80,000 cars from the road.
Even the airlines and airports would stand to benefit financially. The Baltimore and Seattle-Tacoma airports which have recycling and waste management programs and found that they save an average of $100,00 per year. Even their coffee grounds go to a compost dump.
The solution clearly lies on the ground. Airlines would be much more likely to recycle if there was a viable program at each airport. What can we do to help? How about starting a petition online to submit to your nearest airport. I plan to carry a letter to give to the manager of each airport I fly out of or into (give yourself an extra ten minutes). Because even if we got just one airport to change, hey, that’s progress.
Photo by this frequent flyer.
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