We strive continuously to enhance our operational efficiency to minimise our carbon footprint, in line with this there have been several procedures that are being taken to ensure it is being met such as the following:

Waste Management 

Our policy is to reduce as far as possible all waste generated by all our operations and to maximise our recycling rate. Waste generation was greatly reduced in 2020 because of reduced flight operations.

Schedule Waste
Most of the scheduled waste produced relate to the engineering aspects of our flight operations and comprise spent lead-acid batteries, electric and electronic assemblies, mercury and related components, fluorescent lamps, spent oils, contaminated soil or absorbents, containers, gloves, rags and filters.

These are disposed of by licensed contractors in accordance with the Environmental Quality Act 1974 and Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations 2005.

Non-Scheduled Waste
We started to track waste disposal at RedQ (Headquarters in Malaysia) from March 2019, with RedPoint (office in The Philippines) following suit in 2020.

Volume of non-hazardous material was collected and percentage recycled:

Recycling Programme at RedQ and RedHouse
We began monitoring the amount of waste collected at RedQ in 2017, followed by RedHouse (Indonesia) in 2019.
Due to COVID-19, a significant number of recyclable waste had gone down in both offices.

e-Waste
In 2019, we started collecting e-waste from RedQ and sent 80kg of e-waste for recycling. In 2020, we set up three e-waste bins in our Malaysian HQ for items such as broken handphones, tablets, laptops, media storage devices and other small electronics.

Cabin Waste Management
At AirAsia Malaysia, the cabin crew separates waste at the end of every flight and places the recyclable items in green-coloured plastic bags, which are collected by the Ramp staff and transferred to recycling bins or storage provided by waste management companies. Once the bins are full, the waste management company engages a recycling vendor to collect the items.

The waste management company sends its collection data periodically to the Sustainability Department.

Cabin Crew Uniform
Starting from early 2021, AirAsia Philippines began the process of recycling crew’s used uniforms as part of efforts to reduce waste to landfills as well as the cost of disposal.

The Cabin Crew Department issued an SOP to determine which uniforms can be sold for upcycling and the subsequent processes. Uniforms that cannot be reused are scrapped. Based on the success of this initiative, AirAsia Malaysia will establish similar uniform recycling procedures.

Water Management
Various measures have been taken to enhance our water management including water-saving features in washrooms.

In 2020, our water consumption was 35% less than in 2019, due to the reduced number of Allstars reporting to work as well as ongoing water management initiatives.

For full details and the complete AirAsia Sustainability Report 2020, click here.