Atlanta proposes 30-acre facility to meet ambitious airport recycling target at Hartsfield-Jackson International
Thu 12 Feb 2015 – The City of Atlanta is proposing the building of a large recycling facility to handle the estimated annual 25,000 tons of waste generated at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, which handles over 96 million passengers annually and is the world’s busiest airport. A study carried out in 2013 for the city found that in 2012 only 5% of the waste stream from the airport’s passenger terminals and seven concourses was recycled and the city is looking for at least 90% of waste to be recycled or composted, rather than sent to landfill, by January 2020. A 30-acre (12ha) site owned by the city has been identified south of the airport and a tender has been issued for leasing the land and the building and operation of the facility, to be known as the Green Acres ATL Energy Park.
The 2013 study indicated that around 80% of the current municipal solid waste (MSW) stream from the passenger complex consists of materials that could be recycled or composted, with 29% being made up of food waste and 32% of paper that was considered to be compostable.
The proposed facility must also be capable of reprocessing or recycling an estimated 19,000 tons of chipped yard trimmings from the city’s Department of Public Works, as well as handling 175,000 gallons of cooking oil and 50,000 gallons of grease trap fluids annually.
The city is looking for the ATL Energy Park to be up and running by March 2017. Later phases could include an education centre, a waste-to-fuel facility, local food production and a ‘green incubator park’.
A pre-proposal conference is being held next week and responses to the Request for Proposal (RFP) are required by March 11.
