Gol Brazilian Airline Goes Green in Treating Its Waste

zzzBrazilian airline Gol has developed its own program for managing aircraft maintenance waste at its operational bases. Currently, eight bases are using the program to treat and dispose of 100% of their waste and another 18 are in the advanced implementation phase.

The company is also carrying out studies into extending the program to all the airports where it operates.

“After having created our own liquid effluent and solid waste treatment program at our Maintenance Center in Confins (Minas Gerais state), which is a benchmark for the industry, we want to introduce similar procedures at the airports,” declared Alberto Correnti, Gol’s Head of Maintenance.

The Maintenance Center, accordin to Gol, is run along strict environmental standards whereby all the oil and other chemical effluents produced during the maintenance process are treated before being disposed of in a way that does not harm the environment.

For cleaning the inside of the aircraft, the Company uses industrial towels that are laundered by specialized firms in order to avoid any type of waste. Also, since 2003, Gol has been dry cleaning the outside of its aircraft, using only 10% of the amount of water normally used in this procedure.

Gol says that in addition to being environmentally correct and in line with the Company’s own social and environmental responsibility policies, extending the waste management program to the bases will give the airline greater control over material consumption and use.

In accordance with ANVISA (Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency) and CONAMA (Brazil’s National Environment Council), the methodology ensures that each type of waste generated during cleaning and maintenance procedures is disposed of in the most appropriate manner.

In 2009, more than 14 tons of waste were treated prior to disposal, which represents 30% of the total (the other 70% are treated by third parties). In the near future, the Company aims to treat 100% of the waste generated during the procedures.

The company states that it has always been preoccupied with the treatment of aircraft maintenance waste, which was previously handled by airport management at each base.

“The development of our own program, which is totaly in line with environmental legislation and the industry’s best practices, is an important step forward for Gol”, declared Correnti.

The measure anticipates waste management tendencies in the global aviation industry: “By centralizing the process within the company, we have made this issue one more facet of our environmental management and sustainability policy”, he concluded.

Tags:

You May Also Like

Northeast Brazil to Have Its Own International Food Trade Show

Brazil's Fispal, a trade show for the food sector has a version named Fispal ...

Brazil Taxes as the UK and Delivers as a Banana Republic

During a recent speech at the CDES – the Brazilian Social and Economic Development ...

Missing US Teen Found Safe in Salvador, Brazil

Mykensie Martin, 17, an American exchange student who was missing since last weekend, was ...

Brazil Trade Balance Surplus Falls 64%

The trade balance surplus (exports minus imports) in April was US$ 1.744 billion, according ...

Deluge Stops Rio and Kills at Least 94

In Rio, the rain started in the late afternoon Monday and has fallen intermittently ...

Brazil’s Gol Airlines Ends Year with New Routes and Tricks

Brazil Airline Gol announced it will equip its new Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft ...

Despite Crisis Brazil & LatAm Neighbors Get US$ 139 Bi from Overseas, a 9% Boost

The global crisis doesn't seem to have affected direct foreign investments in Latin America ...

Lula Dismisses General Opposed to His Truth Commission

Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signed last night the dismissal of General ...

Concrete Jungle

UCLA FILM AND TELEVISION ARCHIVE PRESENTSBy CINEMA NOVO & BEYOND: A RETROSPECTIVE OF BRAZILIAN ...

Hollywood Discovers Brazil. First LA Brazilian Film Festival Is On

The First Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival (LABRFF) is being held in Los Angeles ...