Zero Waste Valet
Published September 27th, 2024
Just a few short months into the Zero Waste Valet (ZWV) project at Denver International Airport (DEN), Scraps is honored to have support from airport employees as early data shows increased waste diversion on B concourse!
As we’ve mentioned before in this blog, ZWV is a pilot program intended to increase waste diversion and decrease contamination in food and beverage concessions on the B concourse, the largest of DEN’s three concourses. The effort kicked off with a small number of concessions in the “centercore” – the official name for that large central area where you find yourself when you emerge from the airport train – , and is gradually expanding to the entire concourse..
According to Alexa Rosenstein, DEN’s Waste Diversion Specialist, the project “has resonated” with DEN employees, with concessionaires yet to be integrated into the waste valet system eagerly awaiting their turn for inclusion.
“People are happy to have this service,” Rosenstein says. “They seem to be happy to learn about recycling and composting, too. They are excited to hear that they’re doing twice as much waste diversion than last month. At first, we wondered, ‘Will people even care?’ The answer has been a resounding ‘Yes.’”
And please excuse us while we toot our own horn just a bit: Rosenstein says one concession has seen a 40% increase in waste diversion in just a few weeks!
“We think they have the potential of getting up to 80 or 90 percent diversion,” Rosenstein says, adding that hopes are high for the potential of ZWV.
“If we can pull this off on concourse B, we can do it anywhere.”
Scraps is eager to see this project continue to unfold over the course of 2024 and into 2025. This year-and-a-half project is already yielding rich data and salient lessons, and showing potential to bear fruit beyond its current planned timeline. Thanks to DEN employees for believing in a better future, and for inviting Scraps to help make DEN the world’s most sustainable airport!
