London, Stansted Airport sets 0% waste target

With a focus to 'reduce, reuse and recycle' Stansted airport is hoping to send 0% of its waste direct to landfills by the end of the scheme.

Commenting on the waste strategy, head of health, safety and environment Dr Andy Jefferson said: "This strategy outlines the collaborative approach we'll take to identify even the smallest of initiatives that will collectively improve performance.

Photo from Airport Technology

"So far we've collected over 4,900 tonnes of waste this year and recycled and composted an impressive 52%. But with over 10,000 people working here we can also play our part to support domestic recycling."

In 2009 for example, we hosted recycling banks in our staff car park for Uttlesford District Council, with over two tonnes of textiles and five tonnes of glass collected.
"We're fully committed to the strategy now set and look forward to reporting back on our successes as we work towards the challenging 2015 targets set."Stansted has employed numerous strategies in recent history to tackle waste management, such as introducing recycling bins in to the terminal buildings and reusing construction waste when laying the foundations of the new hangar in 2009. Actions set within the Waste Management Strategy 2010-2015 include:

• review waste generated from packaging and identify opportunities to change to recyclable products
• identify opportunities to collaborate with national and local waste recycling programmes and commercial ventures
• continue roll-out of our food composting initiative - which between May and October 2010 diverted 128 tonnes of food waste from landfill.

Stansted's vision is that waste and resource efficiency will be an integral part of our business decision making, demonstrating leadership and continual improvement in environmental good practice. The airport has developed five guiding principles:

1. clear policies on resource efficiency and waste management, building on the principles laid out in the UK Government's Waste Strategy to produce less waste, purchase responsibly and separate waste for recycling
2. an Airport community which is incentivised to prevent, reuse and recycle waste
3. implementation of the 'polluter pays' principal through appropriate charging mechanisms
4. purchasing and design decisions which take resource use and waste into account
5. the right infrastructure to enable delivery of recycling and landfill diversion targets.

Stansted's targets are to:

• achieve zero waste sent directly to landfill from the Airport, with at least 60% of waste recycled by 2015 and 70% recycling by 2020
• maintain 100% compliance with legal requirements
• ensure as the Airport grows, it does so with no increase in waste produced per passenger in 2006 by 2015.

The document is worth reading for its coherent description of overall waste policy i! n England.

Copies of Stansted Airport's waste management strategy (2.6 MB) can be downloaded from here
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