Waste and circular economy

Reducing waste and increasing recycling – a step closer to the circular economy.

Relevance

The Zurich Airport Group influences the circular economy primarily through the way in which it manages waste. A wide variety of waste streams are generated at Zurich Airport. As the licence holder, Flughafen Zürich AG has defined the principles in a waste concept so that all waste materials across the airport can be safely recycled or disposed of in a lawful, economic and environmentally friendly way. Flughafen Zürich AG collects the majority of waste materials produced by itself and its partners at the airport and sends them to appropriate recycling points. These include a large amount of general waste, paper and cardboard, along with waste collected by aircraft cabin cleaners.

Construction work results in considerable amounts of material for recycling or disposal. As most of this waste is disposed of by the contractors themselves, it is not recorded in the waste statistics for Zurich Airport. Nonetheless, the practice of reusing materials in order to save resources is becoming increasingly important.

More attention is also being paid to recycling and the circular economy at the company’s airports abroad. Environmentally friendly disposal is not possible everywhere in Chile, Brazil and India. This makes it even more vital for the company to strive to close the materials cycle in order to avoid negative environmental impacts.

Approach

Zurich Airport’s waste concept is based on the principle of “prevention – recycling – responsible disposal”. Material cycles are closed and material streams minimised wherever possible. In line with the “originator pays principle”, the costs arising from waste disposal are passed on to the waste producers to encourage them to produce less.

The principles applicable to waste disposal are included in the general environmental protection regulations which form part of the company’s tenancy agreements. Another document, the general waste disposal concept (GEK), governs construction waste at Zurich Airport and ensures its proper disposal.

Waste is prevented by significantly reducing the amount of materials used or using materials that can subsequently be returned to the materials cycle. Wherever possible, any waste still remaining is collected in separate fractions so the materials can be reused as secondary raw materials. Much progress has been made in this area over the past ten years. The proportion of materials recycled at Zurich Airport rose from 36% to 51% over this period.

Most materials that cannot be recycled can be thermally utilised. They can be burned in a waste incineration plant and the heat produced can be used to generate electricity or to heat buildings in a district heating network. During the year under review, non-recyclable waste was sent to the waste incineration plant in Hagenholz in Zurich, only 6 kilometres away.

In the reporting period, a total of 8506 tonnes of waste was disposed of at Zurich Airport, 1% less than in the previous year.

Waste management is one of the highest priority matters to be tackled by the company’s subsidiaries abroad. Florianópolis Airport is leading the way in the region. It received the “Green Airport Recognition Airport Professional Award” from the Latin American association of airport operators ACI-LAC for its waste management. Since being taken over by Flughafen Zürich AG, the airport almost halved the amount of waste it sent to landfill by separating out recyclables, composting organic waste, and utilising some combustible waste for cement production. It also launched a major campaign to motivate its airport partners to reduce waste too.

In India there are plans to produce biogas from biogenic waste at the airport in Noida.

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