http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/custom/tourism/orl-liquids2007may20, 0,4396986.story?coll=orl-business-headlines-tourism Ban on liquids leaves OIA awash in trash
Beth Kassab | Sentinel Staff Writer Posted May 20, 2007 Ever since bottled water and toothpaste landed on the list of terrorist weapons next to box cutters and bombs, the volume of trash at Orlando International Airport has spiked to levels never seen before. As travelers prepare this week for Memorial Day weekend trips, more than 1 ton of garbage will be collected from the airport's security checkpoints every day. Most of what's filling the cans is a menagerie of full and empty bottles of water, soda and sports drinks, occasional perfume containers and other toiletries. Nine months after the Transportation Security Administration banned liquids and gels in quantities over 3 ounces from carry-on luggage, some passengers still aren't getting the message. Taking out the trash has never been a heavier burden. "We were having people who literally couldn't lift the bags," said Scott Murray, who manages the airport janitorial contract for BG Service Solutions. The liquid ban began in August after British police arrested terror suspects charged with allegedly plotting to blow up trans-Atlantic airliners with liquid explosives. In the days after the arrests, Murray said, his workers collected 6,500 pounds of garbage each day from the checkpoints in Orlando. He has added two additional workers to his staff to help keep up with the loads. Now the daily weight is down to 2,200 pounds, Murray said, though the summer-travel season is likely to bring a flurry of passengers who are unfamiliar with the rules. "You would kind of think people would have figured it out by now," he said. But they haven't. Although tearful scenes of women dumping expensive eye creams and designer cosmetics have subsided, crowds still gather around the trash cans at the checkpoints to purge their liquid contraband. "Yeah, it is a pain," said Marie Collins as she prepared to enter the security line and board a flight to London on a recent afternoon. To many passengers, that's an understatement. The liquid rule has been called one of the most confusing post-9-11 regulations. There are exceptions for medication and baby food. And travelers can purchase and board a plane with as much liquid as they want once they pass the security checkpoint. "It isn't really fixing anything -- people could bring a tanker truck of that stuff through the back side of the airport," said aviation consultant Michael Boyd. "We're chasing down lip gloss and bottles of Evian water, and meanwhile we have smuggling going on behind the scenes." He was referring to the arrests of airline workers earlier this year charged with taking guns and drugs aboard a flight from Orlando to Puerto Rico. To be sure, some liquids slip through the security checks. Earlier this month, TSA officers shut down the checkpoint for 45 minutes after they realized that a bag with what appeared to be bottles of water made it through. An officer noticed the bottles on the screen of the X-ray machine but failed to flag the bag before its owner picked it up and proceeded to the boarding gates, a TSA spokeswoman said. So what becomes of all the piles of trash surrendered by passengers? TSA officers joke about "hazardous materials" so casually dumped in the garbage. Officers have said co-workers have been pressured to resign after pocketing items -- such as bottles of wine -- that passengers were forced to give up. "If we're doing it to make the flying public feel safer or TSA just wants to justify our existence, then let's at least recycle the tons of plastic we dispose of annually," said one officer, who asked for anonymity because he's not permitted to talk to the media. But that doesn't happen. The airport quit recycling most materials except for cardboard as part of a staff and cost-cutting measure shortly after 9-11. 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