Instead of buying costly electricity from a mostly coal-fired source or wasting leftover food, Las Vegas casinos are finding sustainable, cost-effective alternatives.
At the Aria Resort and Casino, leftover food from its popular buffet never goes to waste.
Last year, the casino’s buffet converted about 7 million pounds of uneaten food into hog feed, rather than letting it rot and slowly break down into methane gas at a local landfill.
That also reduces the cost of its waste management by reducing the total tonnage hauled off the property each year.
“People come to the Las Vegas thinking this is the land of waste when we actually are very, very conscious about our environment,” Aria Environmental Sciences Director Andy Ginsburg told CBS News.
The Aria is one of 10 MGM Resorts International properties in Las Vegas, and all of them convert their leftover food into livestock feed. Their efforts include double-checking outgoing trash to ensure no food is wasted.
As of October 1, all MGM properties in Nevada will be off the grid and buying power from a solar power firm NRG Energy, among others.
MGM even has a solar array atop the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, which NRG Energy erected with 21,000 solar panels across 20 acres of rooftop. It’s the largest solar array atop any convention center in the world.
MGM, Las Vegas Sands, and Wynn Resorts each filed applications to stop buying power from Nevada Power dba NV Energy, which is owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway.
Peppermill Resort in Reno more recently filed an application to stop buying power from NV Energy and awaits a decision.
The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada said MGM, Las Vegas Sands, and Wynn Resorts can stop buying power from NV Energy only if they agree to pay a combined $127 million in fees, to offset investment costs NV Energy anticipated recouping from the casinos to boost its power output.
MGM and other casino operators say NV Energy is overcharging its customers, making an about 27 percent profit, and isn’t lowering rates like it should, particularly for a state-regulated monopoly.
Solar power and natural gas are more affordable and sustainable energy sources with the benefit of greater market competition, and the casinos are embracing cost-effective sustainability measures that help the environment as well as their profit margins.
