Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will finally move forward on a project to develop and operate a recycling facility onsite that will help reduce airport costs in terms of waste; the project has been delayed for years due to a variety of problems, including recyclable material that was too contaminated with garbage, a lack of qualified responses from companies to develop the facility, and incorrectly submitted forms from companies pitching for the contract. Now, however, Hartsfield-Jackson has selected a company - Green Energy and Development Inc. - to develop and operate the "Green Acres" facility on 30 acres of property on the south side of the airport, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
When up and running in 2019, it will be the first fully enclosed recycling and composting facility at an airport, Hartsfield-Jackson officials say. The airport is seeking City Council approval for a 30-year lease with Green Energy and Development, with two five-year renewal options. Green Energy and Development will pay as much as $215,883 in rent per year.
The onsite recycling facility will achieve efficiencies by "providing the means to recycle waste, reducing delivery costs, and subsequently reducing the amount of energy needed to transport recyclable waste to a processing facility," Dr. Charles Marshall, asset management and sustainability with Hartsfield-Jackson, told Environmental Leader. "Not only will waste streams from the airport be diverted from landfills, but also some City of Atlanta non-airport waste will be diverted from landfills as well."
ATL is focused on being the global leader in airport efficiency and customer service excellence. Since providing environmental stewardship is a strategic priority of Hartsfield-Jackson, having a recycling facility on the airport achieves efficiencies by providing the means to recycle waste, reducing delivery costs, and subsequently reducing the amount of energy needed to transport recyclable waste to a processing facility. Not only will waste streams from the airport be diverted from landfills, but also some City of Atlanta non-airport waste will be diverted from landfills as well. This will be a win for the environment, the airport and surrounding areas.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has been on the cutting edge of environmental management initiatives since at least 2011, when the airport established a Sustainable Management Plan that laid the groundwork for an energy management system based on specialized software that allowed the airport to begin tracking and managing utility performance for all of its assets.
The Sustainability Management Plan calls for a 20% reduction in Emissions by 2020, a 20% reduction in water and energy intensity by 2020, and a 90% reduction in waste by 2020. Some of the airport's efforts include changing airfield lights to LED designing facilities to silver, gold, and platinum LEED standards. These initiatives won Hartsfield-Jackson an Environmental Leader Project of the Year Award in 2016.
Airports, with their vast amounts of land, have experimented with solving environmental challenges in innovative ways. Chicago O'Hare International Airport, for example, uses goats, sheep, llamas, burros and alpacas to maintain landscaping across the airport's 8,000 acre property, according to ABC News. The grazing herd benefits the airport's environmental initiatives by reducing the need for mowers and other landscaping equipment and by helping repel problematic wildlife by eating the plants they need to survive.
Chicago O'Hare also has a vegetated roof on the air traffic control tower administration building and hosts apiaries in its large swaths of green space, helping with the resurgence of honeybee colonies.
Other airports hosting honeybees include St. Louis Lambert International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and Albuquerque International Sunport.
