On the BBC’s You and Yours a couple of days ago I listened to a program about airport security in the UK following the attempt by terrorists in 2006 to blow up airliners using liquid explosives.
In response to the threat, airports in the UK forbad passengers from bringing more than 100ml of liquid into the cabin. Any amounts above that limit are confiscated or, at the request of the passenger, handed back at the end of the flight.
Three years on from that, the radio program was asking among other things, whether the ban was effective.
One of the airport security staff, obviously oblivious to the implications of what she was saying, explained that confiscated liquids are put in the recycling bins under each counter, from whence they are sent off for recycling.
So somehow, between the time these suspicious and potentially dangerous items of toothpaste and hair gel and butter (yes, butter is a liquid under the rules) are taken out of people’s bags to the time they are dumped in the recycling bins, they magically become not suspicious and not dangerous.
Or on the other hand, dangerous materials are dumped in the recycling bins and left for the poor staff at the recycling centers to worry about.
Amazing…