Sanjay Singh/ New Delhi
State-run airport developer, Airports Authority of India (AAI), which initiated on use of single-use plastic items at its airports across the country since September 2018 are now plastic free zones across 85 Airports managed by it.
In the first phase, 35 AAI Airports 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 & Visakhapatnam were declared ‘Single-Use Plastic Free Airport Terminals’ in January 2019.
Similarly, during the year 2019, more airports joined the mission and a total of 85 AAI Airports are now plastic free zones.
AAI in a press statement said it has proactively worked on the directions issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to beat plastic pollution.
Various steps were undertaken to eliminate the single-use plastic items at passenger terminals and city side of AAI Airports. These steps include banning of single-use plastic items like straws, plastic cutlery plastic plates and switching over to other packaging alternatives and cutlery plastic plates and other packaging replacements, AAI said in a statement.
AAI has also enhanced its waste management systems and is promoting the use of eco-friendly sustainable alternatives progressively like use of bio-degradable garbage bags in the garbage bins and installation of plastic bottle crushing machine at airports.
“Rampant modernisation and commercialisation are leading to exerting our planet and making its devoid of its natural resources. Being an environmentally-conscious public sector enterprise and for underlining its commitment decided to make its airports plastic free by banning the use of single-use plastic items at its airports across the country,” the AAI said.
The AAI has also formulated an Environment Policy which envisages its commitment for reduction of Green House Gases (GHG) and sustainable development by implementing cost effective carbon mitigation action to conserve environment and reduce adverse impact on society, community and ecosystem thus contributing to national sustainable development goals.
As a part of this policy, AAI is conscious and committed towards sensitizing all employees and stakeholders to fulfil environmental obligation by reducing carbon footprint.