The first UK airline to run a full recycling service, it will collect aluminium drinks cans, plastic wine and water bottles, glass wine and champagne bottles plus newspapers/magazines used during a flight.
The company said it had been prompted to get involved in recycling by a survey of passengers, which found 84% saying airlines were not doing enough to recycle onboard waste.
Monarch tested its recycling schemes on a selection of flights this summer, and said schemes had been received well by both customers and cabin crew.
Collected materials are passed to cleaning staff at Gatwick Airport to be sent for recycling.
Passenger pressure
Managing director of Monarch Airlines Tim Jeans said his company had been running a paper collection scheme onboard its flights for a number of years, but that passengers had wanted to see similar multi-material schemes on flights that they now use at home.
Mr Jeans said: “With 70% of the waste generated in the cabin being potentially recyclable, Monarch has been working with Gatwick Airport on the initiative to ensure that the recyclable waste is removed from the aircraft on arrival and recycled appropriately. We are looking to extend the scheme to include all Monarch's flights over the coming months and we urge our other UK and European airports to introduce the necessary recycling infrastructure to allow us to do so.”
Monarch is running the recycling initiative as part its broader environmental programme called “Monarch and the Planet”, which is seeking to reduce the airline's environmental footprint.
The company is working with the British Airports Authority on the recycling scheme.
David Stretch, customer service director at BAA Gatwick, said: “We are continually looking at ways to increase recycling at the airport and I'm delighted that Monarch has led the way in introducing a service which results in all recyclable onboard items now being recycled.”
As well as the recycling initiative, Monarch said it was looking at other ways to reduce its waste impact. For items that cannot be recycled because of food contamination, it is moving to use biodegradable materials, it said, while it will hand out biodegradable bags rather than plastic bags with its duty free sales.
The airline, based at Luton, operates a fleet comprising 23 Airbus and eight Boeing aircraft, and will be one of the first UK carriers to take delivery of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft with six due for delivery between 2010 and 2013.
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