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CONCESSIONS  
May | June 2026      AirportImprovement.com
SEA
“We gave tenants time to acclimate to the program,” Moore 
says. “It’s really hard to jump in all at once. These products can 
come with a higher price tag, so we helped them partner with 
each other to get better prices on larger bulk items.”  
When finding sustainable packaging options emerged as the 
most challenging aspect for tenants, the airport held vendor fairs 
and supplier meetings to connect concessionaires with small and 
large manufacturers that produce compostable products.
“We want to keep a wide breadth of vendor contacts for our 
tenants,” Moore explains. “We never promote any one vendor. We 
just do a huge outreach with as many vendors as possible.” 
These events, held onsite in the airport conference center, help 
tenants balance SEA’s sustainability requirements with their own 
brand presentation and operational needs. For instance, SEA 
found smaller, minority-run companies willing to create relatively 
small batches of custom products, such as compostable straws 
to match one tenant’s very specific brand colors. 
Looking into the future, the airport is also working toward more 
sustainable beverage packaging. 
“We met with the Coca-Colas and the Pepsis of the world and 
their regional bottlers to trial aluminum can options for waters and 
things like that,” Moore shares. “Then we trialed these products 
within shops to see how passengers would respond to the new 
packaging and price.”
Despite challenges presented by tariffs and limited availability, 
she proudly reports that 96% or more of the products SEA 
tenants use for food and beverage service are reusable or 
compostable, and the rest are recyclable.   
To receive approval, vendors must provide product specifications 
and samples for the airport and its composter to test. 
The Customer Component 
The airport provides more than 450 color-coded collection bins 
throughout its six concourses to help passengers discard items in 
a manner that supports composting and recycling. Green bins are 
for compost material, blue bins are for recyclables, and black are 
for trash. 
“We make sorting as easy as possible by using color coding and 
symbols for each waste stream and keeping the text describing 
what goes in each bin brief,” Webb says. “We only have about two 
to three seconds to guide a passenger to sort correctly.”
Bin placement was planned carefully, with compost bins 
concentrated near food courts and shared seating areas where 
passengers are most likely to dispose of meal packaging and 
food waste. 
Tabletop materials, banners in food courts and television 
messages about the Sip, Savor, Sustain program help further 
increase awareness and understanding. 
Behind the scenes, collected items are sorted and stored in high-
capacity, access-controlled compactors. “Each tenant has a key fob 
that they swipe on a reader at the compactor, which unlocks it for 
them and records their usage,” Webb explains. “At SEA, we charge 
tenants for trash, but not for composting or recycling. This creates 
a financial incentive: The more they compost and recycle, the less 
they pay. We call it a pay-as-you-throw system.”
All compost is sent to Cedar Grove Compositing, and recycling 
goes to Recology, a recyclables recovery facility 17 miles north of 
the airport. 
Monitoring Compliance  
Maintaining the new program requires ongoing oversight and 
training. Moore’s team conducts quarterly environmental audits and 
bi-monthly operational audits; and each fall, Webb’s team conducts 
an annual compliance audit to make sure tenants properly sort 
waste and use approved packaging. 
“Last year we saw 90% compliance in the overall use of 
compostable packaging,” Webb reports.  
Tenants are given 30 days to fix issues uncovered during 
the audit. 
“Most of the time tenants can correct the problem with a 
substitution or a clarification,” he says. “We have a series of 
escalating fines we can issue if they do not comply. But to date, 
we have not had to issue a penalty for anything.”  
While penalties haven’t been necessary, some tenants need 
more guidance than others. New companies that haven’t worked 
in an airport before are paired with experienced tenants to help 
them navigate the process.
We’re with you from 
vision to stewardship.

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