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1 Practicing sustainable waste management is one of many ways an airport can reduce environmental impacts, conserve natural and financial resources, and provide social benefits to its community. The airport waste management programs studied for this report reduce impacts and costs through both common and unique practices. In recent years, the airport industry has established a baseline of effective recycling activities and is turning its focus to diverting food waste, reducing waste generation at the source, and increasing diversion. Training and communication continue to be important elements of successful programs. Through collection of data from 36 airports, existing programs show that a combination of practices leads to effective waste management. This synthesis revealed the following effective strategies through careful review of existing literature, data collected by survey, and case example interviews: ⢠Pay As You Throw fees for tenants ⢠Contracts with tenant and service providers designed to increase diversion ⢠Environmentally preferred purchasing ⢠Food donation ⢠Liquid collection ⢠Terminal recycling for passengers ⢠Office/workplace recycling for employees ⢠Back-of-house composting ⢠Training for employees and tenants ⢠Strong signage ⢠Measuring and monitoring of metrics These practices are discussed in more detail in Chapter 4 and illustrated in the case examples found in the appendices. The case example airports provided sample documents and other resources used to form toolkits for select effective strategies. These toolkits are located in the appendices for this report, which can be found online at http://www.trb.org/ acrp/acrpsynthesis92.aspx. As the case examples illustrate, sustainable airport waste management strategies are not one size fits all. Airports must be responsive to state and local requirements, navigate challenges, and be conscious of practices that care for the environment within their cost constraints. Strategies can be implemented in endless combinations to meet facility needs within the limits of available resources. Airports around the country will see further prog- ress and improvement as they continue to develop innovative, resilient programs made up of combinations of effective strategies to reduce waste generation and increase diversion. S U M M A R Y Airport Waste Management and Recycling Practices
2 Airport Waste Management and Recycling Practices Further research is needed to curate more information about waste reduction strategies, airline and concessionaire practices, passenger behavior, signage, metrics, and interactions between airports and their janitorial and waste collection contractors. Future research efforts will uncover additional effective strategies to support the industryâs sustainability goals and waste management programs.
