DENVER — Denver International Airport rolled out a pilot waste management program in Concourse B in hopes of significantly reducing how much waste goes to landfills.
The Zero Waste Valet program is part of the DIA's Vision 100 plan to prepare the airport to one day serve 100 million passengers annually.
“Part of that vision is sustainability and resiliency. The goal to become the greenest airport in the world is towards that end to really accomplish that goal and set our airport apart,” said Alexa Rosenstein, sustainability specialist at the airport. “It's super inspiring and gratifying to be able to work here and to know that the largest economic engine for our entire state has prioritized this initiative.”
DIA partnered with the compost company Scraps and launched the Zero Waste Valet program in June. Under the program, Scraps separates the waste, recycling and compostable items from participating restaurants and businesses in Concourse B.
“You underestimate the amount of steps that it takes in order to move waste out of a restaurant operation in the airport,” said Kari Matthews, CEO of Skyport Hospitality, which operates many of the concessions in Concourse B. “This is such a big building and such a big facility that the time that it takes for one of our team members to move waste down to the trash areas is significant.”
Randi Zimmermann, director of Zero Waste Valet, has certainly seen how much work it is to just move the waste throughout DIA.
“We’re walking about 25,000 steps a day and lifting, moving, pushing, pulling between 1,200 and 1,500 pounds a day of waste material,” said Zimmermann. “By the end of February, we’ll probably be at about 150 tons of material that has been diverted from the landfill.”
Airport wide, 21% of waste is diverted from landfills. Concessions using Zero Waste Valet, on the other hand, see 75% of their waste recycled, composted, or reused.
The program’s success begins with education. Many of the concessions were throwing all their waste into a single bin, so Zero Waste Valet educates businesses on what is compostable and what isn’t. Program staff demonstrate easy ways to separate different types of waste into different containers. Then, Zero Waste Valet picks up the waste and disposes of it through the proper channels.
“Simply putting trash into different containers versus throwing it all into the same bin is seemingly simple,” said Matthews. “When you replicate that over 20 different businesses over weeks and months and years, you start to see the tons of waste that are being diverted and the impact that actually has on the overall Denver community and Denver environment.”
About 50% of the businesses in Concourse B currently utilize the program, and the airport plans to expand to 100% by the summer. If the plan is successful, DIA hopes to eventually expand it to every concourse.
“It’s been very well received, and everyone has been really excited to work with us,” said Rosenstein. “They want to be a part of this pilot program. They want to learn more about how they can be better at reducing their environmental footprint, and they want to learn more about the waste that they generate.”
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