Atlanta airport aims to ramp up recycling

Hartsfield-Jackson International said about 5 percent of passengers’ waste is being recycled at the airport, but it intends to increase that to 30 percent through education and the addition of recycling kiosks in food courts.

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The airport added 320 recycling bins throughout the airport in December 2014 for recyclable paper, cans and plastic. A previous airport recycling program launched in 2009 failed to meet its goals of separating recyclables from waste that were discarded into the same bin.

Hartsfield-Jackson officials say the airport already recycles about 40 percent of construction and demolition waste, green waste and internal commodities.

But they say much of passengers’ waste is thrown-away food that is not as easily recycled. The airport plans to soon relaunch an effort to build a composting facility at the airport.

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