Airlines dont recycle anything from their flights.

According to ENN, airlines do not recycle aluminum cans or paper and plastic from their flights. Jeez…thats just scary. Want to see some numbers?

“-discarding 4,250 tons of aluminum cans and other items that could be recycled

-the industry threw out 9,000 tons of plastic and enough newspapers and magazines to fill a football field to a depth of more than 230 feet.

-”Airlines in the U.S. throw away enough aluminum cans every year to build 58 new 747s,” said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at NRDC.
Other findings:

- Airports put out about 1.28 pounds of waste per passenger in 2004, about one-third of the total amount Americans generate in an entire day.

- Recycling 70 percent of the aluminum cans currently discarded would save the amount of energy used by 5,000 U.S. households in a year.

- Aluminum accounts for 1 percent of the air travel industry’s waste stream. But the energy benefits of recycling one ton of the substance are 11 times that of recycling one ton of newspaper and eight times that of recycling the same amount of plastic.”

That is just amazing…they complain about the price of fuel every day and then charge us a fortune to fly, and then we find out this little tidbit of information.

What a shame. Maybe flights wouldn’t cost $500 if they just recycled my Coke can and my magazine.

technorati tags:airlines recycle save money

You may also like:

1. Americans Throw Away 1,500 Aluminum Cans Per Second.
2. Do One Thing: Recycle For Others Who Don’t Have Recycling Options.
3. Greenwash Of The Week: Southwest Airlines “Green” Plane.
4. How And Where To Recycle An Old Mattress.
5. How And Where To Recycle Your Old Carpet.

1. How to Set and Keep Savings Goals
2. Movie Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams

Like this post? If so, please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS. Or, if you would prefer, you can subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox: