Waste

The issue: Waste is a very important issue for a number of reasons including diminishing natural resources, the reduction in landfill capacity and environment impacts associated with waste disposal activities such as land filling. There are also positive impacts from recycling waste into new materials, as this reduces the need for the processing of raw materials. Typically, substantially less energy is used in recycling waste into products over new materials and recycled materials can often return to the market place very quickly. Both in the past and at present, there is a huge amount of waste which has needlessly be sent to landfill, such as paper, card and plastics which can be easily recycled.

In recent years, there have been a number of new laws governing waste disposal which aim to protect human health and the environment as well as promote recycling. We strive to comply with these laws and increase the volume of waste recycled at the airport.

Our approach: Southampton Airport's aim is to work along the principal of the Government’s strategy ’A Way with Waste’ which has the waste hierarchy as one of its core principles. This hierarchy outlines an approach to waste management and a number of steps which include:

• Reducing the amount of waste produced, also known as waste minimisation, such as reducing the amount of paper used in office printing
• Reusing waste which is disposed of including refurbishing things that can be reused
• Recovering waste or recycling waste which can’t be subjected to one of the above activities.

The final option would then be the disposal of waste which cannot be reduced, reused or recycled.

There are a number of objectives to work towards this hierarchy, one of which is ensuring good recycling facilities are available at the airport. Staff and third party companies then need to be made aware of how to use facilities and promote recycling. In addition, opportunities will be identified to replace non-recyclable products used with those that can be recycled, and looking at ways in which the production of waste can be minimised.

Southampton Airport aims to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill site by increasing the level of waste that is recycled. One of the main producers of waste at the airport are airlines flying into Southampton who produce cabin waste. Southampton Airport is a regional airport with the average flight lasting a few hours, therefore the amount of waste produced by our airline partners is of a smaller nature when compared with longer flights. However, whilst there are recyclable items, such as newspapers and cardboard packaging wastes, most waste is mixed with general waste for a variety of reasons such as the limited availability of space on aircraft to store or separate waste. This means that there is opportunity to work with airlines to reduce the amount of cabin waste which is recycled in the future.   

Our performance
Target 2006/07: To recycle 22% of waste consigned through the airport waste contract.
Performance against target: Target bettered.

During 2006/07, we worked towards revamping the waste and recycling contract which manages the airport’s waste. One of the primary factors of the new contract, along with ensuring duty of care, was making sure more waste types could be recycled than being sent to landfill. The new contract with Grundon Waste Management Limited from March 2007 now means that the airport can recycle more items than ever before. Typical items that can be recycled include; paper, cardboard, magazines, plastic bottles, steel and aluminium cans, glass bottles, ink cartridges and mobile phones.

New recycling bins have been placed in offices and individual desk recyclers have also been made available for staff to help contribute to recycling. A launch of the new waste contract took place on the 1 March, where there was also a Recycling Awareness Day to engage with staff.

Overall, we bettered the 22% target for recycling during 2006/07, by a further 2%. A total of 24% of waste produced under the general waste contract was recylced, this equates to over 100 tonnes of waste which was diverted from landfill during the year. This was in addition to large quantities of "inert" rubble and soil wastes which are produced during  construction activities which are sent for re-use and recycling.

Going forward: Our target is to increase recycling for the general waste handled by the airport waste contract from 24% in 2006 to 30% by 31 December 2007.