Airlines Toss Enough Cans Each Year to Build Fleet of Airliners, NRDC Says
by Kyeann Sayer, Nomad 
on 12.18.06
As if there weren't enough reasons to feel guilty about flying, a newly released NRDC study highlights airline industry and air port wastefulness. Some nuggets:
Airlines in the U.S. throw away enough aluminum cans every year to build 58 new 747s.
The airline industry threw out 9,000 tons of plastic in 2004, and enough newspapers and magazines to bury a football field more than 230 feet deep.
Nationwide, U.S. airports generated 425,000 tons of waste in 2004 -- a figure expected to increase nearly 45 percent by 2015.
Each passenger today leaves behind 1.3 pounds of trash. Seventy five percent of this waste is recyclable or compostable.
Not all of the news is gloomy, however. Airports like Seattle Sea-Tac and Oakland have shown that recycling and composting lead to major savings. Read the summary or download the full report. NRDC via GreenBiz
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