Phil the Bin
GATWICK OFFICIALLY GOES GREEN
British Airways aircraft technician Phil Townrow is known to his Gatwick colleagues as plain ‘Phil the Bin’.
And now that’s exactly what they do every day of their working lives – fill the bin!
For Phil has channelled his passion for re-cycling into an ambitious environmental campaign, enlisting the support of all his workmates at the airport.
Thanks to his efforts recycling has become a way of life for British Airways engineers at Gatwick and they have incorporated the adage ‘reduce, re-use and recycle’ into their daily routines.
Like all large organisations British Airways has a Corporate Responsibility Programme, which lays out how it is going to deal with - amongst other things - the amount of waste the airline, and its passengers, produce.
Phil’s active interest began when he saw an advert by West Sussex County Council looking for volunteers to become Waste Prevention Advisors. They offered full training in return for delegates attending local shows and events promoting various initiatives offered by all the West Sussex waste authorities
He approached his manager who agreed he could complete the two-week course providing Phil used the knowledge he learned back at work. The course was delivered by Brighton University and funded by West Sussex County Council and even counts towards a degree course in waste management!
True to his word Phil went back to British Airways to champion his green campaign using his newly honed skills.
And he is extremely proud of his Gatwick colleagues who have completely embraced the project.
He has introduced them to “commingled” recycling which involves collecting cans plastic bottles glass and cardboard for reprocessing. It is sent to Grundons Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) where the products are separated, bulked up then sent on to reprocessing plants.
Other improvements at Gatwick include:
- A dedicated recycling collection point on Stand 59 in the North Terminal to collect engine oil, aircraft fuel, batteries, fluorescent tubes, paper and cardboard as well as clinical waste, hazardous and general waste.
- In all the crew rooms and offices there are Grundons’ blue commingled recycling bins which take paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, metal cans paper cups.
- In Hangar 6 there are commingled recycling bins in offices and crew rooms along with salvaged general waste bins. With the reduction in offices and hangar space at Heathrow a large number of waste bins were surplus so rather than getting new bins, the old ones were refurbished as general waste bins and installed
- A major refit of the hangar, with new heating and lighting and the inclusion of five large fans which dramatically reduced the amount of energy needed to heat the hangar. During the heavy snow earlier this year only one of the two boilers was needed and ran on one third power. That coupled with the new energy saving lighting represented an impressive saving.
- All office and rest room lighting has been replaced with energy efficient lighting units, and the offices are fitted with IR sensors that will turn lights off if movement is not detected over a couple of minutes, saving electricity.
British Airways engineers at Gatwick are also re-using effectively. Packaging is being used again to return components for overhaul or repair and engine oil is drained and returned in bulk for reprocessing.
All other items that can’t be recycled go into black general waste bins. These go to Grundons’ new energy from waste plant at Heathrow where it is burned and used to generate electricity which British Airways can sell to the National Grid. This will help the airline achieve its promise of sending zero waste to landfill by 2010.
Says Phil: “We have made an excellent effort at Gatwick but we can always do more and I am just about to launch a new poster campaign to create awareness and remind people of the constant need to recycle. I have always tried to recycle at home, I used to take my recycling to the Household Waste Recycling Site before kerbside recycling was available.
“The course was incredibly informative on all the issues around waste prevention and management around West Sussex. Afterwards I started reviewing what we recycled at Gatwick and how it was collected and sorted by our contractors, Grundons. I had a meeting with them and EMCOR who look after all of the facilities.
“We came up with a plan to increase the facilities at Gatwick and I have steadily been working on improvements and changes ever since in an effort to improve our recycling rate. Thanks to the efforts of everyone we are achieving this.”
Phil is now involved with a Community Interest Company called Better Tomorrows, set up by West Sussex County Council, in partnership with the district and borough councils. It promotes a step change in the way the public deal with their household waste and Phil represents the general public as a volunteer board director.
He has taken advantage of British Airways’ current offer of part time work to spend two days a week helping to support the promotional work of Better Tomorrows and attending forums to help spread the word around West Sussex .
He says as a “part timer” he’s now known by his colleagues at BA as “Half Phil The Bin”!
If any one is interested in becoming a Waste Prevention Advisor please email info@bettertomorrows.org.uk