As part of this project, which began on 1 June 2024 and will last four years, five major airports in four different European countries – Budapest (Hungary), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Madrid, Tenerife (Spain) and Venice (Italy), are joining forces to combat one of the main environmental impacts of global aviation, waste production, with ambitious goals:
- Reduce final waste produced by employees, passengers and visitors, as well as freight-related waste, by 70% through a combination of innovative technologies and approaches:
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- Reduction of waste at source (raw materials, supplies, packaging, etc.) in airside and landside airport operational processes
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- Creation of new (re)uses for waste in these same processes, including by contributing to the development of new economic sectors for the reuse, recycling and short-circuit recycling of waste
- Reducing current and future construction waste by 90% through better reuse and by using new, more environmentally friendly materials in buildings that can be recycled at the end of their life.
Airports can be considered as cities, with equally high levels of waste production. In this first phase, Ecoscience Provence is providing its expertise in supporting economic actors to reduce waste linked to airport activities and integrate airports into their local sustainable economic fabric.
During the project, the five partner airports are also implementing and evaluating pilot actions. Ecoscience Provence has a specific role in certifying their eco-responsible practices in the airport ecosystem in direct contact with employees, passengers and visitors (70 million passengers and crew travelling each year to more than 100 countries). The objective of this second phase of the project is to promote airport shops, restaurants and hotels that are committed to an eco-responsible approach based on four pillars:
- Waste reduction and packaging limitation
- Marketing of local products through short supply chains
- Resource management and energy savings
- Environmental and social responsibility
In the three years following the end of the project, the most environmentally efficient technologies and processes could be replicated in the airports belonging to the group to which they are attached: AviAlliance (Budapest), AENA (Madrid and Tenerife) and Gruppo Save (Venice). This means that around 100 airports in Europe and around the world could eventually implement this approach. The impact of the LIFE TRIPL-AIR project would then make it possible to avoid:
Firstly, 5,000 tonnes of unsorted final waste and packaging and 1.7 million tonnes of construction waste by the end of the project, between now and 2028
Then 21,000 tonnes of unsorted waste and packaging and 7.0 million tonnes of construction waste after replication in airports belonging to the same groups, three years after the end of the project, in 2031.
LIFE TRIPL-AIR therefore offers a unique opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of airports and share the lessons learned worldwide.
The total project workload is more than 500 man-months over four years, with a budget of €5,270,000, 60% of which is financed by Europe, including €800,000 contributed by the Souffleurs d'Écume / Écoscience Provence association.
