Three years ago, Charlotte-Douglas Airport officials celebrated the opening of a new trash sorting facility. The goal was to turn a profit on recyclables within five years. It’s not turning out that way.
Charlotte Douglas Airport, which is a division of the city, spent $1.2 million in 2012 to build the single-stream waste facility. It separates recyclable materials from trash so they can be sold. The plan was for the airport to split recycling profits with a private company that would manage the sorting facility.
Last July, after 13 months of operation, the airport started looking for a new company to run the plant.