The objective at Manchester Airport is to produce less waste and to increase recycling and waste recovery rates.
Waste at Manchester Airport comes from a number of sources: aircraft, terminal and office cleaning, retail packaging waste, aircraft and terminal catering, engineering and maintenance and cargo handling. 85% of all waste at the airport is generated by service partners including aircraft cleaning waste, retrail and catering. So not only must the environment team convince the airport's staff to reduce the waste they produce but they must work with service partner companies on site to persuade them to review their purchasing policies and encourage staff to reuse and recycle materials wherever possible.
Most companies recycle because it is cost effective. Landfill Tax now stands at £48 per tonne. This is a huge financial disincentive to send waste to landfill and a huge incentive to recycle.
The airport made a commitment in its Environment Plan to recycle more and to eliminate waste that goes to landfill by 2030.
The airport gets some income for some materials but by no means all of them. Overall recycling saves about 15% of the airport's waste budget so it is definitely worth doing.
