Pune airport will become free of ‘single-use plastic’

Pune: Being an environmentally conscious public sector enterprise, and for underlining its commitment toward its corporate social responsibility, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to make its airports plastic-free by banning the use of single-use plastic items at its airports across the country. The step has been taken at 16 airports, including the Pune airport based at Lohegaon.

“Various steps have been taken to eliminate single-use plastic items at passenger terminals and the city side. These steps include banning of single-use plastic items such as straws, plastic cutleries, plastic plates, etc,” said a statement released by the AAI.

“On the basis of a third-party assessment carried out by the Quality Council of India, 16 AAI airports, including Indore, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Tirupati, Trichy, Vijayawada, Dehradun, Chandigarh, Vadodara, Madurai, Raipur, Vizag, Pune, Kolkata and Varanasi have been declared as single-use plastic free,” said a spokesperson of the AAI.

“The AAI is also enhancing its waste management systems and is promoting the use of eco-friendly, sustainable alternatives progressively such as use of bio-degradable garbage bags in the garbage bins and installation of plastic bottle crushing machines at airports. The AAI airports have also started various awareness campaigns for sensitising all stakeholders, specially passengers, toward the cause and to drive engagement and cooperation from all of them,” said the AAI spokesperson.

“In its quest for making environment conservation an ingrained organisational mission, the Airports Authority of India has formulated an Environment Policy, which envisages its commitment to the reduction of green house gases (GHGs) and sustainable development by implementing cost-effective carbon mitigation action to conserve environment and to reduce adverse impact on society, community and ecosystem, thus contributing to national sustainable development goals. As a part of this policy, the AAI is conscious and committed to sensitising all employees and stakeholders to fulfil environmental obligation by reducing carbon footprint,” the spokesperson said.

“In ensuring the successful implementation of dissuading the usage of single-use plastic items, the AAI, along with stakeholders, has been carrying out internal audits of its airports. The AAI has also engaged the Quality Council of India to assess/ check the implementation of the ban of single-use plastic items at 34 airports handling one million passengers per annum, which will be completed by January 31,” he added.