Post from Zachary Delbex-Smith's Blog:
World Market Center
| By www.greenervegas.org - Sep 28, 2008 3:19:36 PM ET |
| Also listed in: www.greenervegas.org |
Going Green at the
It was easy to see the enthusiasm of Gerald Sawyer; Chief Operating Officer for the World Market Center , as he met us at the recycling complex located at the rear of what will soon be the largest trade show complex in the world. Twice a year the World Market Center hosts more than 600 exhibitors who ship in more than 1500 truck loads of display furnishings. Mr. Sawyer explained the unique problems faced by a complex of this size that must remove literally hundreds of truckloads of excess Styrofoam, cardboard, and plastic (used in furniture packing) in a just few short days. His solution was to purchase and install the necessary equipment on-site in order to reduce the volume of this mass to a manageable size, and at the same time prevents it from ending up in the local landfills.
A standard bailer is used to compress plastics; a large crosscut bailer reduces cardboard to shreds, and a machine to melt Styrofoam (which is 90% air). During peak show times as many as twenty workers separate and load materials into the respectable machines as fast as the trucks loads can be dumped into the recycle area. A local recycling services company provides the manpower and transportation to remove the compressed, shredded, and melted material, which is then sent to various recycling plants for further processing. In the case of Styrofoam (one of the worst environmental offenders), the broken pieces are melted into small manageable ingots. The ingots are then shipped overseas where a processing plant remakes the material into new usable Styrofoam, thus virtually no waste.
While the equipment was a large investment Mr. Sawyer calculates that investment will be paid off in 2.5 years by saving the World Market Center $300,000 a year on waste removal costs. The savings to our environment are even greater.
As the World Market Center grows from its current 2.9 million square feet, to nearly 5 million square feet when the next phase opens in July of 2008, to the approximate 12 million square feet when the center is completed in 2013. "…of course by then we will have added a second recycling complex similar to this one at the north end of the complex" Mr. Sawyer proudly explained as we ended our tour.
Click here for a detailed fact sheet on the World Market Center
Artists rendering of WMC when complete in 2013
Click Here for an update to this story
Webmaster note: "This site built using 80% recycled code "
It was easy to see the enthusiasm of Gerald Sawyer; Chief Operating Officer for the World Market Center , as he met us at the recycling complex located at the rear of what will soon be the largest trade show complex in the world. Twice a year the World Market Center hosts more than 600 exhibitors who ship in more than 1500 truck loads of display furnishings. Mr. Sawyer explained the unique problems faced by a complex of this size that must remove literally hundreds of truckloads of excess Styrofoam, cardboard, and plastic (used in furniture packing) in a just few short days. His solution was to purchase and install the necessary equipment on-site in order to reduce the volume of this mass to a manageable size, and at the same time prevents it from ending up in the local landfills.
A standard bailer is used to compress plastics; a large crosscut bailer reduces cardboard to shreds, and a machine to melt Styrofoam (which is 90% air). During peak show times as many as twenty workers separate and load materials into the respectable machines as fast as the trucks loads can be dumped into the recycle area. A local recycling services company provides the manpower and transportation to remove the compressed, shredded, and melted material, which is then sent to various recycling plants for further processing. In the case of Styrofoam (one of the worst environmental offenders), the broken pieces are melted into small manageable ingots. The ingots are then shipped overseas where a processing plant remakes the material into new usable Styrofoam, thus virtually no waste.
While the equipment was a large investment Mr. Sawyer calculates that investment will be paid off in 2.5 years by saving the World Market Center $300,000 a year on waste removal costs. The savings to our environment are even greater.
As the World Market Center grows from its current 2.9 million square feet, to nearly 5 million square feet when the next phase opens in July of 2008, to the approximate 12 million square feet when the center is completed in 2013. "…of course by then we will have added a second recycling complex similar to this one at the north end of the complex" Mr. Sawyer proudly explained as we ended our tour.
Click here for a detailed fact sheet on the World Market Center
Artists rendering of WMC when complete in 2013
Click Here for an update to this story
Webmaster note: "This site built using 80% recycled code "
Comments are closed for this post.