Apr 17 â€" LAX Airport Doing its Part for Recycling

The Daily Breeze reports on LAX’s far-reaching efforts to ‘turn trash into treasure’ by recycling much more than the typical traveler would think. By recycling in-flight magazines, soda cans, donating pillows and toilets to those willing takers, and even having construction workers wring oil from cleaning rags and sell it to a company that turns it into fuel, the airport diverted over 20,000 tons of garbage from the landfill, or about 60% of the airport’s overall trash. With most travelers buying their meals, beverages and entertainment to-go, airports naturally become huge generators of garbage. The recycling operators at LAX, which is the largest airport in the state, saw this as an opportunity to show other public facilities how it can  be done.  

Tom McHugh doesn't see trash in the sodden piles of cardboard and plastic wrap that greet him every morning. He sees opportunity.

Rusted steel? Scrap metal. Wilted flowers? Compost. And the mealy cardboard of old boxes? Even that is worth a few dollars, if you know where to look.

McHugh oversees a vast recycling program at Los Angeles International Airport, and he sees opportunity everywhere. The airport recycled about 20,000 tons of rubbish last year -- in-flight magazines and soda cans, greasy rags and old metal.

That much recycled garbage would weigh about as much as 50 fully loaded international jumbo jets.

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