Sin City’s world-famous casinos in recent years have developed and expanded innovative practices to cut back on the thousands of tons of leftover and uneaten food they send to the landfill each year. The businesses are turning food scraps into compost or shipping them to a farm to feed thousands of pigs. They’re donating expired minibar snacks to community groups. And they’re giving excess banquet meals to a food bank.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March honored MGM’s Bellagio casino-resort for sending tons of food waste to a pig farm north of Las Vegas and for diverting oyster shells to Chesapeake Bay, where they help restore habitat.