Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) is to begin a food waste recycling pilot program at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
In partnership with the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation (LASAN), the program will supply a new source of clean and renewable energy. The Organics Waste Recycling Pilot will collect food waste from a targeted sample of restaurants and other airport concessionaires. Following collection, the food waste will be transported for conversion into natural gas.
LAWA CEO Deborah Flint commented, “LAWA believes that protecting and strengthening our environment takes a village, and having great partners like our pilot program participants and the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation is what makes change happen.
“We expect that the Organic Waste Recycling Pilot program will become a significant part of the wide variety of environmentally-conscious programs now underway at LAX and Van Nuys.”
Participating food establishments across the airport will have their food waste collected by LAWA’s maintenance services division. LASAN will then transport the waste to a City of Los Angeles Transfer Site for further consolidation before it moves onto CR&R Environmental Services, where it will undergo the anaerobic digestion process to turn it into a natural gas fuel.
The pilot program will run for 90 days and LAWA will then evaluate the results.
Sean Burton, president of the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners, said, “The Organic Waste Recycling Pilot program offers a unique opportunity to expand our sustainability efforts further into the terminals.
“We thank LASAN and our pilot program participants for taking this step with us, and we look forward to evaluating the results.”