Trash landings. feature. text Patrick Murray

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1 feature text Patrick Murray Trash landings ismal that s the word used in the Trash Landings report "D published by the US Natural Resources Defense Council at the end of 2006 on the airline industry s efforts to deal with the waste it generates. It says most of the waste generated at US airports is sent to landfill and incinerators. The study says airport and airline recycling systems are largely underdeveloped. Even the best systems have a lower recycling rate than the national average of 31 per cent. The survey does not include inflight catering units because they have their own wastehandling systems, designed and supplied by specialists. Some of the report s main findings include: If airports and airlines in the US recycled as much as the average rate, enough energy would be saved to power some 20,000 households. Reduced carbon emissions would be the equivalent of taking around 80,000 cars off the road each year. Four US airports with recycling and waste management programmes are each achieving cost savings of more than $100,000 a year. The US airline industry alone discards enough aluminium cans each year to build 58 Boeing B747s. In 2004 the industry discarded 9000 tonnes of plastic and enough newspapers and magazines to fill a football field to a depth of more than 230ft. The report says that recycling efforts must begin with airport infrastructure. Recycling will only happen if there is a system on the ground that will help it happen. In this, airlines should help influence the development of the recycling infrastructure. Inefficiencies occur where airlines, airports, restaurants etc all have separate waste contracts at the airport. In the US, Oakland International and Seattle-Tacoma are two airports that have switched to a centralised system and realised big cost savings. LAX and Fort Lauderdale are two other airports with a pioneering approach to coordinated waste management. At Portland International, 1500 gallons of cooking oil monthly are sent for re-processing into bio-diesel. The same happens at Sea- Tac, and magazines from incoming Lufthansa flights are donated to local schools for use in language lessons. The survey also says that waste from aircraft that has not been sorted in flight does not usually get recycled on the 18

2 Waste management The issue of waste and recycling is fast moving up the onboard catering industry s agenda. Patrick Murray delved into the bins to find out why Every passenger contributes to the waste mountain and the incinerator emissions; Envac recycling system ground. Solutions suggested are: Create more space-efficient inflight recycling systems Inform airlines about the recycling systems at the airports they use Provide cabin attendants with incentives for inflight recycling Bill airport tenants and airlines directly for waste management, making the precise costs known Institute a pay-as-you-throw system at Sea-Tac airport users pay for waste disposed of in garbage compactors, but disposing of separated recyclables is free Hire a dedicated recycling coordinator Aluminium is particularly important: the energy benefits of recycling one tonne of aluminium are 11 times that of recycling one tonne of newspaper and eight times that of PET. However, because paper products account for about "If airports and airlines in the US recycled as much as the average rate, enough energy would be saved to power some 20,000 households. Reduced carbon emissions would be the equivalent of taking around 80,000 cars off the road each year." 40 per cent of the US air travel industry s waste, recycling it can divert the greatest tonnage from landfill and incineration. The US air travel industry is forecast to grow 4.5 per cent a year, to carry more than one billion passengers in 2015 compared with 738 million in This means that as much as 650,000 tonnes of waste a year will be generated at US airports by Andrew Parker, Emirates senior vp AA pioneers Among recycling pioneers in the early 1990s was a small band of American Airline flight attendants that started their own effort to recycle cans, bottles, and other waste from flights. They gradually enlisted all 17,000 or so of their fellow flight attendants, eventually creating a systemwide recycling effort without much help from top management. Over time, the flight attendants were able to amass $200,000 from selling recycled materials, and used the money to purchase a plot of land near the Nashville airport and donate it to The Nature Conservancy to protect an endangered coneflower. 19

3 Waste management Recycling is crucial. The US airline industry discards enough aluminium cans annually to build 58 B747s public and environment affairs says that Emirates has made significant gains in managing the environmental challenge of waste. We are now recycling over 100 tonnes a month from our flight catering operations in Dubai. This includes paper, aluminium, glass and cardboard. And it is just the start. We are looking at ways to make it easier for flight crews to sort recyclable materials so this process does not just happen when on the ground in Dubai, or elsewhere. But recycling is only one issue. We are working on and implementing many changes in procurement so there is less waste in the supply chain. Instead of individually wrapped or packaged items we are pushing our partners to supply more efficiently, reducing plastic, cardboard and other components. We also use our own re-useable plastic pallet system to avoid the waste of supplier pallets. We have also pioneered some outstanding distribution of unused food items to less prosperous countries we fly to. This involves separating sealed items in good order, like yoghurts and jams, on landing in parts of Africa and the subcontinent, to allow them to be sent to those in most need. Emirates is making strong gains and we have more work to do." Virgin Atlantic says: At present we recycle all unused elements of the amenity kits and all our onboard linen and "We are now recycling over 100 tonnes a month from our flight catering operations in Dubai. This includes paper, aluminium, glass and cardboard. And it is just the start" blankets. We are also trialling can and newspaper recycling onboard flights. We have a target of a 50 per cent reduction in aircraft waste onboard by 2012 and we plan to achieve this by reducing packaging as much as possible and increasing the segregation of waste onboard. We are presently working with BAA for them to provide us with the recycling facilities at airports which we need in order to improve targets for further recycling of onboard waste. Simon Soni at BA tells us: Waste is a significant part of our corporate social responsibility strategy for a number of reasons. For example, the space it takes up; our desire to recycle where possible requiring segregation (onboard or on the ground) and the impact of international catering waste regulations; the balance of heavy rotable equipment and therefore fuel-burn vs. light disposable packaging and waste; and the need to find alternatives to landfill. We have a corporate target to recycle 50 per cent of our waste in the UK and to send zero to landfill by We are working with our suppliers to make the changes that will enable this to happen, and have built environmental considerations, which include waste impact, into our product development cycle. Cathay Pacific says: We have added collection of plastic cups in Economy to 20

4 the items which the crew sort and store separately for recycling for HKG inbound flights. However there are regulations at many of the outports, which are currently preventing us from implementing this initiative on all flights. There is also the storage issue here which does make the job of separate storage a challenge - and would be more so if the galley size is reduced. The team at Cathay Pacific continues to work hard in the area of recycling of our obsolete inflight items including catering equipment and in the purchase of lighter more durable equipment. The Growtth approach Jörn Niewadomsky is vp airline catering and service solutions at Germany s Growtth Consulting Europe. He says: the Growtth approach (Get rid Of Waste Through Team Harmony) is a successful way of proactively managing your supply chain and achieving measurable and fast results. His view is that measures taken to reduce food cost should be treated separately from the reduction of actual food waste. Reducing 22 food cost can be achieved through lean logistics and lean process management whereas food waste is part of the total food cost and depends on internal planning, systems and training. Food cost is determined at the menu development and presentation stage. A successful menu presentation depends on knowledge "Reducing food cost can be achieved through lean logistics and lean process management whereas food waste is part of the total food cost and depends on internal planning, systems and training" of customer needs, know-how and the existing product portfolio. With these three factors, a caterer will be able to integrate a new creative menu by using existing ingredients. An increased amount of articles entails increasing cost and waste, created through logistics and internal handling. Lean logistics is another important factor in the reduction of food cost. In the traditional purchasing process, the product is bought at the cheapest price. However, through changes in the production process food waste often increases. In order to create an efficient purchasing process, it is important to understand the whole value stream of a product, which does not end in the fridge/freezer but on a passenger s tray. Unfortunately, as opposed to other industries, this aspect is rarely considered in the airline catering business. It is also fundamental to create a lean supply chain before the goods even enter the production process, while also integrating suppliers into the value stream. Planning systems and employee involvement reduce food waste. Jörn says many facilities are using planning systems like SAP, Preactor, Coscis etc, but the systems often use wrong or outdated parameters. This very often leads to an inefficient supply chain. As a result many products are manufactured too early (increase of inventory and food waste) or too late

5 Waste management Recycling of headphones and headsets by MNH; Care of the environment is moving ever higher as a key requirement of the airline industry (risk of production delays). Compared with the automotive industry, the airline business deals with demand that changes on an hourly basis. This is the reason why consultants or system providers can fail in installing the right parameters, which should be determined by the runrate and order frequency. Besides the planning system, people can make the difference. By involving employees at all times and levels, planning systems and processes operate effectively and will still do so when the consultants have left. In the airline catering industry, this approach has resulted in a decreased food waste of 35 per cent, says Jörn. At one site in the food supply industry it generated savings of 1.5 million euros within eight weeks. Salvage, separate, recycle MNH Recycling has been providing programmes for cabin recycling for over a decade and is currently working in partnership with airlines such as bmi, First Choice and Virgin. Says managing director Matt Rance: We are slowly expanding the amount of cabin waste we can salvage and recycle. Some waste separation can occur onboard, as in the case of glass, but we think the most efficient cabin waste management solution is in the form of an airside separation and recycling plant. MNH plants utilise specialist offload waste separation and salvaging processes - when "It is important that products are compatible with waste management, and this means an effort to use recyclable and not mixed materials for cabin products, otherwise end-of-use recycling is not possible" performed efficiently the service has the potential to be self-funding, says the company. Currently many supply chains contain piecemeal, fragmented wastesorting activities. We grasp the nettle, says Matt. For us it's our core business. We apply a disciplined production line approach to process the cabin offload. Through stringent separation and recycling programmes MNH aims to be a zero landfill operation by the end of 2008, which shows how much waste can be diverted from landfill and in most cases turned into a revenue stream. MNH points out that the purest form of recycling is re-use. Therefore any giveaway items with secondary use potential are green -- re-usable headsets and outer bags for amenity kits. It is important that products are compatible with waste management, and this means an effort to use recyclable and not mixed materials for cabin products, otherwise end-of-use recycling is not possible. Existing legislation also has an obvious impact. Airline headsets, for example, are covered by WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) recycling regulations effectively enforcing the need to separate and recycle electrical waste. Failure to comply with this legislation can result in fines and possible jail sentences, so several airlines are currently at risk. MNH provide a complete zero landfill headset refurbishing and recycling 23

6 Waste management The 'green' approach service meeting all current legislation and assisting environmental targets. At end of life, headsets are broken down into their raw materials for remanufacture. Nicky Beades of Onboardlogistics points out the waste debate had started in the US, when the no-frills airlines commenced, and passengers had to pay for inflight service. Here the airports saw an opportunity to upgrade the catering facilities in the terminals from seated catering only, to every type of takeaway you can imagine. Up to this point airlines knew what they had catered and on average knew how much waste required disposing of at the end of each flight. In today s environment it is impossible to estimate what passengers will bring onboard. Airlines by default have now become the waste collection agency for the airport catering takeaway. Airlines have always handled waste in various ways. Some have put on extra waste-carts which may mean taking off a sales cart thus losing revenue. Some have installed compactors, particularly on 24 long-haul flights. Others have put on extra bags for the crew to constantly go up and down the aisle collecting waste. Others have practically ignored the problem and left the passenger with the waste in the seat pocket. The concept used by Onboardlogistics is to complement the existing waste systems "It is impossible to estimate what passengers will bring onboard. Airlines by default have now become the waste collection agency for airports" with cart equipment onboard for extra waste collection. The company has designed a plastic bag and frame called Flex-e-Bag. It allows an empty cart sitting in the galley to be used as a waste cart. As the Flex-e-Bag can be sealed, the crew member can remove the bag just like domestic garbage. The system can be used to collect waste from passengers and also in the galley area, allowing crews to have extra garbage space. It can be adapted to segregate waste and can be made from biodegradable material. Scandinavian waste systems operator, Envac, sees the growth in health, hygiene and security regulations as adding further demands for super-efficient systems in flight kitchens and for inbound waste disposal. Its kitchen waste vacuum system has just been ordered by Qatar Airways new flight kitchen at Doha and is already used by Qantas, Emirates and BA. The system, which has five sub-systems for different types of waste, is expected to have a daily throughput of more than 100 tonnes from the production of meals and returned trays, and will run 24/7. The piping system takes waste direct from source to transport. Christer Kihlström, head of marketing, says: "It is vital that waste disposal systems work efficiently all time - flight caterers cannot afford to waste time and they also have to meet strict rules and regulations. There is growing demand for this kind of closed pipe system."