Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) has attained the Platinum rating in the Green Airports Recognition (GAR) Programme 2023 in under 8 million passengers per annum category.

A media statement by MIA said the rating is awarded by the Airports Council International (ACI) Asia-Pacific. It was presented at the 18th ACI Asia Pacific regional assembly, conference and exhibition in Kobe.

It said that the rating is a recognition towards MIA’s continued mission to becoming one of the first airports to eliminate the use of single-use plastic.

‘Single use plastic-free airport’

Centred around the theme of ‘single use plastic elimination’, the GAR Programme 2023 amplifies the global imperative to combat the detrimental impact of single use plastic pollution, with a special focus on the aviation industry.

As part of the project ‘single use plastic-free airport’, MIA identified sources of single use plastic that was in use at the airport, including from business partners, employees, stakeholders, and passengers. Accordingly, airport issued guidelines to all restaurants to provide wooden cutlery items. In food and beverages outlets, single use plastic cups and straws have been eliminated and replaced with glass/paper cups and paper straws, it said.

Guidelines issued

Duty-free bags at international departures and arrivals have been converted to cloth bags. Changeover from single use plastic bags to paper bags has been implemented at all retail outlets. At the office, use of single use plastic drinking water bottles has been eliminated and converted to glass bottles. Under the ‘single use plastic-free airport’ campaign, awareness video has been displayed at digital display boards and flight information display system at various locations, it said.

Guidelines have been provided to all vendors to dispatch spare parts, products, and consumables without single use plastic wrappers. By implementing the above project, MIA has reduced the plastic waste from an average of 1,238 kg per month in 2021-22 to an average of 444 kg per month in 2022-23, resulting in reduction of 23.8 tonnes of CO2, it said.

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