Airports Becoming Green

Undoubtedly, airplanes create large amounts of air pollution through the exhaust. However, it has been found that airplane passengers themselves harm the environment also. The amount of recyclable items such as paper, plastic and aluminum that are thrown out daily is astronomical. Of the millions of pounds of trash created each day, only 20% of the 75% of recyclable products are actually recycled. Just at the security checkpoints alone, 48000 to 78000 bottles are thrown out each year because they are not allowed on the plane.

The method of recycling varies from airport to airport which makes it difficult to enforce this issue. But, airports are trying to best to make recycling a way of flying. Continental airlines are now recycling oil, antifreeze and maintenance products for later use along with onboard bins separating bottles, aluminum cans and cardboard boxes. Similarly, Oakland International Airport is separating their recyclables as well as food scraps. Plus, at security checkpoints many airports are making the effort to obtain liquid bins. This way, passengers can dump their liquids and reuse the bottles.


All airports should be required to have recycling bins. This is such a simple method to keep the earth a better, greener place. Obviously, if the bins are not present, people would not make the effort to keep their trash to recycle at a later time. But, if the option was there, it would be much easier. Not only airports, but everywhere there is a garbage there should be a recycling bin. I thought putting them in classrooms at school was a smart idea because students might actually put their recyclables in the blue bins.

Negroni, Christine. (2010 February 22). Leaving The Trash Behind. The New York Times. Retrived from http://nytimes.com