The Portland International Airport says it鈥檚 aiming to go green by relaunching a program that鈥檚 all about sustainability. The Green Plate program was such a hit when it first launched in 2017 that they鈥檙e doing it again. Now, when travelers come through PDX鈥檚 Concourse C, they can get plates and utensils that won鈥檛 be thrown away.
There鈥檚 one place that knows how to accumulate trash, and that鈥檚 the airport. 鈥淲hen we did the pilot back in 2017, we were able to reduce our to-go packaging by 73 percent, so we鈥檙e hoping for similar results,鈥� said Erin Anderson, a senior environmental specialist for the Port of Portland.
The first pilot lasted three months; we had a lot of success, as well as reducing our waste and saving our foods carts on money, not having to purchase the disposals,鈥� added Anderson. The program tried launching full time in 2019, but the pandemic and the COVID-19 construction of the airport made them wait a bit longer. Just a couple of weeks ago, they launched it again, which focuses on reusing instead of throwing things away in the trash.