A new report has found that airlines are generating over 800 million pounds of waste every year but only 20% is actually being recycled.

Most of the rubbish from airlines is generated in flight. The report uncovered that many airlines are not even recycling aluminium cans and in 2004 enough cans were thrown in the bin to build 58 Boeing 747 jets. In the same year just less than 10,000 tonnes of plastics and enough newspapers to cover a football pitch 250 meters deep were chucked in the bin.

Only 16% of passengers feel that enough is being done to recycle onboard waste.

In the UK Monarch Airlines was the first to introduce a recycling scheme, where they place all cans, magazines, newspapers and champagne bottles in a recycling bag and recycle them when landing at Gatwick airport. Thomas Cook UK Airlines also launched a national onboard recycling scheme in January 2009.

British Airways have also recently announced that they will be building a new plant in the UK to turn 500,000 tonnes of waste materials into 16,000,000 gallons of fuel for their planes.