What does Nice Airport do with your confiscated items?

Not a lot of people know this, but they go to a good cause.

We’ve all been through it. Your hand luggage goes through the X-ray machine and suddenly you have to part with your favourite cream or perfume… because the rule is a maximum of 100 ml for liquids. No matter how many times we are told, it still happens. So where do our confiscated items end up? Not in the bin as you might expect. At Nice airport, at least, they are collected for distribution to the Restos du Coeur (national food bank charity).

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Launched in March, the partnership – a first in France – between the airport and the charity founded by Coluche has been a great success. The management therefore naturally decided to make it permanent and even to extend it to all the airport’s terminals (until now, the system was only in operation in terminal 2).

22 000 products collected

In 8 months, nearly 22,000 products, both food and non-food, were collected and given to people in need. François Chantrait, head of communications for Restos du cœur 06, sees this partnership as a real opportunity.

“The products collected are a nice addition to the weekly basket we give to the people we receive: delicatessen items, hygiene and cosmetic products, different desserts, etc. It is a welcome “bonus” when everyday life is difficult for the most vulnerable. It is also a virtuous partnership in terms of sustainable waste management.”

In the same vein, the chairman of the board of Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur, Franck Goldnadel, believes that “waste is no longer acceptable”, and readily admits his pride in the solution the airport has put in place.

So everyone wins, and perhaps this makes it a little less painful for travellers to part with their items!