Think about a typical trip to the airport. You get your boarding pass, check your bag -- after paying $15 -- and sail along toward your gate. But first, there's the TSA security line.
You take off your shoes, remove your laptop from your bag, smirk at the inept rookie travelers in the line next to you and strut your way through the metal detector. Then it happens: somehow you forgot about the small bottle of hand sanitizer tucked away in your bag for emergencies. Now you're the one holding up the line.
To avoid further embarrassment, you casually shrug and tell the security lady to toss your plastic. You're back on your way, but did you ever stop to think about how many of those plastic bottles add up in just a single day of travel? Have you ever wondered, "Where are the recycling bins?"
The Transportation Security Administration does not regulate, require, or currently recommend recycling of plastics that are discarded at security check points, according to its public affairs office. To recycle or not recycle is at the sole decision of individual airports.
Asked whether TSA had considered requiring recycling, officials responded that recycling was not in their realm of responsibility. (Unless Hazmats are involved, in which case they're all over it.)
So OhMyGov! decided to check out the recycling programs at airports in the D.C. region. Baltimore-Washington International does have a recycling program, with bins positioned prior to and at security check points, as well as beyond them. According to the public affairs office at Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), both Reagan National and Dulles International airports offer recycling options prior to and after security checkpoints. They do not, however, have a recycling bin at the checkpoints themselves. So hand sanitizer and other discarded liquids --- voluntarily or not --- go right into the trash.
MWAA said that its recycling program was not the result of federal-level pressure. Rather, each of its airports decided to offer the recycling bins as a service to passengers.
What about airports across the rest of the country? Is there any effort to implement nationwide recycling programs? According to Airports Council International, TSA does not regulate waste disposal, since waste management is enforced at a local rather than federal level.
"Many airports have recycling collection containers at... or...near the security checkpoints, but one of the issues is that the material put into them is often full (and as a consequence heavy)," said a spokesperson for the Airports Council.
Without funding from the federal government, local airport authorities must bear the financial burden of recycling at security checkpoints. This is unfortunate, because it is the feds who set up the security apparatus and make the rules. Putting aside the serious questions about the merits of the liquid ban, while it is still in place, the TSA should be going the extra mile to operate an environmentally friendly checkpoint area. (After all, TSA is collecting revenues from passengers and business.)
In the meantime, if your local airport recycles, thank them for wisely using your tax dollars.
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