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Overall, airlines could recycle nearly 500 million more tons of waste each year (including 250 million tons of in-flight waste). While airlines acknowledge the importance of recycling waste, no airline recycles all the major recyclables: aluminum cans, glass, plastic, and paper. No airline has a comprehensive programme for minimising or composting food waste or waste from snack packages, provides good public information about their recycling programme, or reports out on progress in relation to any stated goals.
In addition, all airlines provide over-packaged snacks and meals and none of the airlines are working with manufacturers to reduce this waste.
The Green America airline recycling rankings are (from best to worst): Delta Airlines, Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, Southwest Airlines, Continental Airlines, Jet Blue, American Airlines, British Airways, Air Tran, United Airlines, and US Airways.
"For concerned consumers looking to spend their travel dollars wisely, airline waste may be the ultimate example of 'what goes up must come down'," says Green America Responsible Shopper Lead Researcher Victoria Kreha. "The good news is that airlines are starting to pay attention to recycling; the bad news is that they have a long way to go to improve the situation.
"Fortunately, airlines can overcome any of the challenges to creating in-flight recycling programs, including employee education and involvement, knowledge of the type of waste produced, and a time- and space-efficient system."
Green America Corporate Responsibility Director Todd Larsen says: "While airlines may face some challenges in creating effective recycling programmes, evidence shows that working systems can be implemented. Our report demonstrates that several airlines are significantly ahead of their competitors in taking these steps, and it is clear that comprehensive recycling programs can be implemented effectively and economically."
The report looks at five areas: variety in waste recycled, future in-flight recycling plans, size of in-flight recycling programme, education/encouragement of employees in onboard recycling programmes, other in-flight sustainability initiatives, and provides overall rankings. Industry-wide ResponsibleShopper.org finds that there is room for tremendous improvement and no airline received higher than a B- grade overall.
Nearly 75% of in-flight generated waste is recyclable; however only about 20% actually is recycled. According to research published by the Natural Resource Defense Council, annually, airlines throw away 9,000 tons of plastic, enough aluminum cans to build 58 Boeing 747 jets, and enough newspaper and magazines to cover a football field 230 metres deep.
The energy savings from recycling this waste would represent a contribution by the airlines to reducing their environmental impact in the face of the considerable climate impact of jet fuel, including 600 million tons of carbon dioxide per year pumped into the atmosphere by commercial jets alone.
Beyond the environmental benefits, recycling this waste would create jobs nationwide, since according to Colorado Recycles, recycling creates six times as many jobs as landfilling.
In addition to the overall dismal recycling policies of the airlines, Green America's on-flight research identified that some airlines are not actually implementing their stated policies in the air. As a result, Green America is calling on passengers nationwide to respectfully ask flight attendants if materials on their specific flights are being recycled, and to report their findings to Green America at:
www.greenamericatoday.org/takeaction/airline/airline_recycling.cfm
The full Airline recycling report is available at http://www.greenamericatoday.org/go/AirlineRecyclingReport/ Contact information for all of the airlines is available in the report for passengers wishing to contact airlines to request that they improve their recycling practices.
www.responsibleshopper.org