AAI removes single-use plastics from another 20 airports

As part of initiatives towards environment protection, a commitment has been made by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to add 20 additional AAI airports as ‘Single-Use Plastic Free Airport Terminals’ within 100 days after formation of the new government.

AAI has already enrolled 35 airports to the no single-use plastics initiative, namely Agartala, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Goa, Guwahati, Imphal, Indore, Jaipur, Jammu, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai, Mangalore, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Srinagar, Tiruchirappalli, Tirupati, Trivandrum, Udaipur, Vadodara, Varanasi, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. All of these have been declared ‘Single-Use Plastic Free Airport Terminals’ in Phase I of the rollout to airports nationwide.

Accordingly, on the basis of Third-Party Assessment carried out by the Quality Council of India, 20 more AAI Airports namely Allahabad, Aurangabad, Belgaum, Bhuj, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Gaya, Gorakhpur, Jabalpur, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Jorhat, Kangra, Khajuraho, Leh, Rajahmundry, Rajkot, Silchar, Surat and Tuticorin in Phase II have been declared ‘Single-Use Plastic Free Airport Terminals’ as of the 30 August 2019.

Various steps have been taken by AAI to eliminate the single-use plastic items at passenger terminals and city side of AAI airports. These steps include banning single-use plastic items like straws, plastic cutlery and plastic plates.

AAI is also enhancing its waste management systems and is promoting the use of eco-friendly sustainable alternatives like use of biodegradable rubbish bags in the two bins and the installation of plastic-bottle crushing machines at airports.

AAI airports have also started various awareness campaigns for sensitising all stakeholders, especially passengers towards the cause and to drive engagement and cooperation from all of them.

For making environmental conservation an ingrained organisational mission, the AAI has formulated an Environment Policy which envisages its commitment for reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG) and sustainable development by implementing cost-effective carbon mitigation action to conserve environment and reduce adverse impacts on society, community and ecosystem thus contributing to national sustainable development goals.

As a part of this policy, AAI is conscious and committed towards sensitising all employees and stakeholders to fulfil environmental obligation by reducing its carbon footprint. In ensuring the successful implementation of dissuading the usage of single-use plastic items, AAI has been carrying out internal audits of its airports along with various stakeholders.