Starting from September 22, Incheon Airport (Chairman and CEO CW Lee), as the 3rd initiative in its Green Cargo Hub program, promotes the use of the first environment-friendly photo-degradable air cargo plastic packaging material in Korea to inbound foreign air carriers by funding half of their purchase costs.
The special plastic packaging material, developed by Incheon Airport in partnership with the air cargo packaging material vendor ABI International Co., Ltd., is designed to blend conventional plastic packaging material with UV stabilizer and photo-degradation agent to maintain the advantages of conventional plastic packaging such as durability and become naturally degradable under the ultra-violet ray in sunlight.
Incheon Airport alone uses about 14 tons of air cargo plastic packaging material a day or 5,110 tons per year. As conventional plastic packaging materials are difficult to be reused, most of them are thrown away after being used just once. Conventional plastic materials remain undegraded for over 16 years when they are reclaimed, causing adverse impact on environment. In contrast, photo-degradable plastic packaging materials have the advantage of being degradable 95% of more in just a year of exposure to UV ray and oxygen.
In spite of such green properties, photo-degradable plastic materials have failed to find extensive applications, as they are twice more expensive than conventional plastic packaging materials. Accordingly, Incheon Airport, after funding the purchase of bio-degradable air cargo plastic packaging materials for domestic air carriers last year (phase 2 of the Green Cargo Hub program), has decided to fund 50% of the purchasing cost of photo-degradable plastic packaging materials for foreign air carriers flying to and from Incheon Airport such as Lufthansa Cargo, Cathay Pacific, and Jade Cargo.
In the meantime, Incheon Airport has promoted the use of lightweight air cargo container and bio-degradable air cargo plastic packaging materials as a part of its Green Cargo Hub program since 2009 to give boost to the green growth of air cargo industry, which results in reduction of CO2 emission by 28,000 tons per year. Incheon Airport funds a part of purchasing costs of such materials for air carriers flying to and from the airport to prepare in advance for the EU carbon emission credit trading scheme (ETS) scheduled to take effect from 2012. In addition, Incheon Airport logo is printed on such products to promote the image of Incheon Airport as a green logistic brand effectively to air liners, logistics service providers and other airports around the world.
