US Airline Industry Lags Nation on Recycling

US Airline Industry Lags Nation on Recycling

PlanetArk US

15th December 2006

NEW YORK - US airlines and airports send more of their trash to the dump than the country as a whole, losing the chance to save emissions through recycling, according to an environmental group's report.

Passengers at US airlines and airports left behind about 425,000 tons of aluminum cans, newspapers, magazines and other trash in 2004, 75 percent of which was recyclable, the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a report released this week.

Airlines and airports sent 80 percent of their garbage to the dump or incinerator rather than recycling, while the United States as a whole sent about 70 percent, the report said.

The 30 largest US airports alone generated about as much trash as the city of Miami over the same period, it said.

Recycling paper and aluminum cans discarded by the air industry could save emissions of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from processing virgin timber and bauxite ore equal to removing nearly 80,000 cars from the road, according to the report.

"These are resources that don't need to be mined, logged or drilled," said the report's author Allen Hershkowitz, a scientist at the NRDC. "And by avoiding all that, you save a lot of energy and avoid a lot of emissions."

He said the aluminum wasted by the industry every year is enough to build 58 commercial jumbo jet airplanes.

Jessica Steinhilber, environmental director for the industry group Airports Council International-North America, said several airports like Seattle-Tacoma International have recycling programs.

"We try to encourage these airports to share what they've learned so other airports can implement or better their own programs," she said.

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE