Airport bosses set their sights on care for planet

Nov 18 2008 by Francesca Craggs, The Journal

When you jet off on holiday, the first thing on your mind is probably not recycling. But thanks to Newcastle International Airport, there are ways you can go green with next to no effort, as Amy Hunt finds out.

ALL travel has an environmental impact. But at Newcastle International Airport, bosses are working hard to find ways to be eco-friendly.

From recycling the bottles passengers throw away at security, to encouraging their staff to come to work by bus, the aim is to make the airport as green as possible.

Every week the airport recycles Snuggle Packs from all Thomson long-haul flights which land in Newcastle. Containing a blanket, eye patch and travel pillows, the packs are donated to the Great North Air Ambulance to be used in helicopters, and to Newcastle Cat and Dog Shelter who use the blankets as comfy beds for rescued animals.

Around 11,000 blankets from your long-haul flights have been recycled since the flights started operating in May, a rate of around 500 per week.

Helen Hughes, environmental co-ordinator at Newcastle Airport, said: “We promote our environmental agenda through numerous sustainable systems.

“Not only do we try to recycle as much as possible within the airport itself, we also look to help tour operators and airlines. Our work with Thomson has been a great success, as we have redistributed these blankets to some vital causes in our region.

“With the last flight touching down at the end of October, it has been a very rewarding project, and we hope to continue this initiative during 2009’s summer season.”

Inside the terminal building, around 20% of waste is recycled each month. Bosses go to great lengths to recycle as much waste as possible, including litter collected in the terminal building and all of the plastic bottles confiscated during security searches.

Newcastle Airport’s administration block is also a bin-free environment, with all rubbish collected through a central recycling system located in the corridors. And recently the arrival of a new cardboard baler has boosted recycling efforts even further.

The baler allows higher amounts of cardboard to be stored on site before it is transported to a paper mill near Hexham, cutting down the number of journeys needed to collect it.

Thanks to this the volume of cardboard from packaging being recycled has shot up.

Chiefs at the airport also realise how important it is to educate staff members in environmental issues in order to encourage them to be green at home as well as at work.

During Energy Awareness Week in October, a new campaign was launched at the airport, called Switch On To Switching Off. An energy team was formed using representatives from each part of the business, who would have a look at their workspace and decide where energy-saving measures were needed.

The team will have regular meetings to keep an eye on energy consumption figures from each department to make sure energy is being saved.

Mugs bearing the campaign logo and messages on the staff intranet will spread the word about the green cause. As part of the campaign, each member of staff will be offered a free energy-saving light bulb and will have the opportunity to take part in the home energy survey online, thanks to the Energy Saving Trust.

To mark World Environment Day on June 5 this year, Newcastle Airport staff took part in a travel survey.

The results showed that of the respondents, 81% travelled to work by car, 5% took the Metro, 47% would be interested in car sharing and 31% may travel on public transport. With the help of these statistics airport bosses have put together a green travel plan, with the aim of encouraging staff to consider alternative modes of travel such as cycling, Metro travel and car sharing.

The airport also has a well-established landscape and wildlife strategy aiming to promote and protect wildlife living around the site. As well as holidaymakers and flight crew, the 184-hectare airport site has a number of other regular visitors.

Great crested newts, bats and red squirrels are among the species found at the site near Ponteland, Northumberland. Ecologists from Entec carry out regular monitoring of wildlife on site and airport bosses have formed a partnership with the Ponteland Red Squirrel Group to monitor squirrel activity on the airport site and encourage more of the creatures to spread there.