THE AVIATION SUSTAINABILITY FORUM LTD.

Cabin and catering waste is costing our sector billions of dollars each year. Untouched food and drink makes up a large percentage of this and, due to strict regulatory controls in many parts of the world, it is usually incinerated or sent to deep landfill. With passenger numbers set to double to 10 billion by 2050, this problem is only going to grow – the time to act is now. The ASF was set up in 2019 by a group of industry professionals from the inflight sector who could see firsthand, the increasing problem of cabin and catering waste. The forum was originally established to facilitate the bringing together of the key stakeholders from within the sector to share information and best practice. We quickly realised that the industry desperately needed data to better understand its waste – what is it, what is it made of, where is it onboard and how much of it is there? As a result, we established our sector leading Cabin Waste Composition Audit programme with the support of IATA and SATS Catering in Singapore. Using our unique, bespoke data tools our audit programme is ongoing and is collecting rich data that is helping airlines and caterers identify key areas for improvements that will result in significant reduction in waste and costs. In July 2024 we were delighted to announce the recognition from IATA that our audit tool will become the industry standard for measuring and analysing cabin waste data for our sector.