LSG Sky Chefs, the catering subsidiary of the LSG Group, has teamed up with Air New Zealand and the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to tackle inflight waste from Air New Zealand’s international services arriving in Auckland.
The waste reduction initiative “Project Green” is expected to divert 150 tons of waste from landfill annually. Project Green has enabled 40 Air New Zealand inflight products that were previously sent to landfill due to biosecurity controls, to be reclassified so they can be reused on future flights if removed from aircraft sealed and untouched.
Products approved to date include sealed beverages and unopened snacks with further items expected to be added in coming months. In the first month of running Project Green across Air New Zealand’s international fleet, 13 tons of waste, including 266,000 plastic cups, 480 kg of sugar packets and 3.5 tons of bottled water were diverted.
Waste management is a significant issue for all airlines, with International Air Transport Association (IATA) data estimating the global industry generated 5.2m tons of inflight waste in 2016. While Air New Zealand has always been waste-conscious, quarantine controls have presented challenges to recycling initiatives in the past.
Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon says, “We’ve spent considerable time auditing our inflight waste to gain a better understanding of how we can improve our handling processes. By collaborating with LSG Sky Chefs and MPI we’ve been able to make significant gains – we’re incredibly encouraged by the early data we’re seeing.”
LSG Sky Chefs New Zealand General Manager Pieter Harting says, “Our role in Project Green is to ensure items taken off aircraft are sorted correctly and meet the standards we’ve agreed with MPI and Air New Zealand, before reloading trolleys with approved items for the next service. It’s been an exciting journey for us, requiring a big culture shift and getting our people onboard with new ways of working.”
Moving forward, the organizations will look at how they can further expand the range of unused products that can safely be recovered and develop a more precise approach to analysing collection data to ensure aircraft are catered more accurately.
The LSG Group
The LSG Group is the world’s leading provider of end-to-end on-board products and services. These include catering, on-board retail and entertainment, on-board equipment and logistics, consulting and lounge services. The company’s dedication to culinary excellence and expertise in logistics has led to its successful entry into adjacent markets like convenience retail and train services. Its catering activities are marketed under the “LSG Sky Chefs” brand name, through which it delivers 628 million meals a year and is present at 209 airports across the globe. In 2016, the companies belonging to the LSG Group achieved consolidated revenues of € 3.2 billion. www.lsg-group.com
Featured image credited to istock.com/JakeOlimb
