As inhabitants of a largely barren desert, Nevadans should be experts in protecting what few natural resources the state has—but until recently, Nevada’s environmental policy has done little to reflect reality.

In 2008, a SustainLane Media survey of urban sustainability, which included economic and environmental criteria, ranked Las Vegas No. 47 out of the nation’s 50 largest cities. Last month, Men’s Health magazine released a list of residential recycling rankings, in which Las Vegas placed 99th out of 100 cities.

But despite its dismal placing in most environmental surveys, Las Vegas is striving to become a model of sustainability for the state—and with the help of a few key players, Nevada’s greener future may be closer than its rankings indicate.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Environmental activists have long focused on reusing resources as a method of contributing to global sustainability. Some Las Vegans, like Tara Pike-Nordstrom, have taken it upon themselves to lead the recycling fight.

For Pike-Nordstrom, recycling has been a lifelong passion. As an undergraduate environmental studies major at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in the early 1990s, Pike-Nordstrom had to write a thesis paper about an environmental issue close to her heart.

“They said, ‘How about this: Think of something where you’ll make a difference on your campus, in your neighborhood, in your state, in your city,’” she said. “‘Think globally, act locally.’”

Pike-Nordstrom was already involved in an environmental group on campus that was focusing on recycling, and decided to craft a feasible recycling plan for UNLV. Upon graduating, Pike-Nordstrom wanted to turn her concept into a reality.

By 1995, UNLV’s Rebel Recycling program, which was based on Pike-Nordstrom’s thesis, was underway, funded by a $1 per student per semester fee inspired by the University of Colorado-Boulder’s recycling program.

In its early days, the program was intended to raise awareness about recycling among the university’s staff and students. Silver State Disposal Service, Inc., which was acquired by Republic Services in 1997, handled the campus’ recycling when Pike-Nordstrom began the program. The company picked up two tons of recycling from the school per week, but when Pike-Nordstrom decided to divert UNLV’s cardboard recycling efforts from the rest of the materials, Silver State notified her of its decision to drop the campus from its recycling services.

With just two employees and a small office, Pike-Nordstrom was forced to take on the job of recycling for UNLV, its satellite campuses and off-campus offices.

“The whole thing was a struggle,” she said.

The program has evolved in the years since Pike-Nordstrom was sorting paper alone in a parking lot—with the help of five full-time employees, 11 student workers and dozens of volunteers, Pike-Nordstrom was able to recycle 697 tons of materials last year (about 2.8 tons per work day).

While Pike-Nordstrom has worked tirelessly to ensure that UNLV moves toward sustainability, the team at Greener Vegas has come together to facilitate a recycling relationship between businesses and community members.

Zachary Delbex-Smith, founder of Greener Vegas, is a Teamster who works in the city’s convention industry. As the Las Vegas Convention Center strives to cut down its carbon footprint, Delbex-Smith and his colleagues have taken it upon themselves to speed up the process by collecting reusable materials after trade shows conclude.

The non-profit environmental organization began in January 2008, and immediately tackled the recycling of trade show publications at the convention center.

“We decided that the first thing that we’d do was do something about the publications, which seem to be the most non-focused on,” said Cynthia Stimple, chief operations officer of Greener Vegas. “Coming into a convention, those publications are so important; they represent the people that are there. But the moment that show is over, they’re trash. The convention industry has changed a lot in the last year. No one paid attention to what came in or what was being thrown away.”

Last year, Greener Vegas recycled almost 800,000 pounds of publication materials. The organization has its roots in recycling paper products, but Stimple said Greener Vegas is branching out, drawing attention to non-recyclable materials that are being thrown away rather than repurposed.

Many trade shows incorporate materials like metal, foamcore and mixed-media products that cannot be recycled. Greener Vegas has reached out to the community to find homes for such materials, connecting trade associations and businesses with schools, theaters and other interested parties.

Stimple said children in particular benefit from the repurposed materials donated from local businesses.

“With the budget cuts being so huge, there’s such a shortage of supplies for the schools,” she said. “So things like pens, the bags that come from the shows—all of those things are circulated back into the community… we try to repurpose that stuff as soon as possible.”

Stimple also said she hopes the current economic climate will remind people to be more resourceful, adhering to the old adage that one person’s trash is another’s treasure.

“People aren’t concerned about the green of the Earth anymore, people are concerned about the green in their pockets, and whether or not they can afford to recycle,” she said. “That is the most preposterous thing in the world.”

Industrial Strength

While Pike-Nordstrom and Stimple are focusing on UNLV and the Las Vegas Convention Center, respectively, the gaming industry is also doing its part.

Though no recycle bins can be found on the floors of any Las Vegas resort, the city’s hotels and casinos do recycle—out of sight.

“As practical as they are, sometimes the big blue bin just doesn’t fit in with the décor,” MGM Mirage spokesman Gordan Ashber told USA Today last year. “We do recycle, but we don’t need to ask our guests to do the work for us.”

Materials are typically sorted by hand on the properties’ back docks, then transported to recycling centers.

The city’s newest resorts are also focusing on the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino is the country’s largest LEED-certified building, and new resorts such as Fontainebleau and CityCenter are being constructed according to LEED standards.

LEED certification, which ranges from basic to platinum, is judged according to several environmental factors, including air quality—which is why no Las Vegas resort has earned (or will earn) a platinum rating. The council deducts points from buildings that allow smoking.

However, LEED ratings ensure that even if casinos are not pillars of environmental excellence, they are trying to be more energy efficient—some properties, like the Palazzo, even harness solar power in their efforts to cut costs and carbon emissions.

Save the Planet (and Money)

Nevada Senator Harry Reid has been at the forefront of diversifying energy sources in order conserve the earth’s natural resources and save money in the long-term. Reid has long been championed the harnessing of Nevada’s sunny days for energy purposes.

“Nevada is the Saudi Arabia of solar energy and is poised to lead a global clean energy revolution,” Reid said in a statement last year. “We need to do all we can to encourage public and private investment in projects to develop this amazing potential.”

One such project, Nevada Solar One, went online in 2007. The 400-acre solar plant, located in Boulder City, uses parabolic troughs comprised of mirrors to funnel sunlight into tubes containing heat transfer fluid. The heat turns water into steam, which then powers a turbine. Nevada Solar One is one of the few utility-scale power plants in the country, and is able to produce 64 megawatts—enough energy to power 40,000 Las Vegas homes.

NV Energy, the state’s electric utility company, has acknowledged the move toward alternative energy is inevitable in the state, and as such has postponed plans to build the the coal-powered Ely Energy Center for at least 10 years. In a statement, the company said it “will not move forward with construction of the coal plant until the technologies that will capture and store greenhouse gasses are commercially feasible, which is not likely before the end of the next decade.”

The company is instead focusing on the construction of a 250-mile transmission line that will link northern and southern Nevada and enable NV Energy to electrically transport renewable and other energy resources from one part of the state to the other.

NV Energy has also instituted incentive programs to help customers make their homes and businesses more energy efficient. The incentives include rebates for replacing outdated appliances with newer, more efficient ones; rebates for replacing old light bulbs with energy-saving ones; rebates for installing solar panels; and a refrigerator recycling program.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority is also at the forefront of providing incentives to encourage energy efficiency. The Water Smart Landscape rebate program, which began in 2005, offers property owners $1.50 per square foot of grass that is removed and replaced with more sustainable desert landscaping.

Brave New World

In an effort to further demonstrate its emerging environmental consciousness, the city of Las Vegas will be participating in the second annual Earth Hour, in which cities all over the world power down iconic buildings, government offices, residences and non-essential lighting of other structures for 60 minutes. The event, organized by the World Wildlife Fund, is intended to be a symbolic demonstration calling attention to global climate change. Las Vegas will be joining more than 70 cities around the world when the Strip goes dark March 28 at 8:30 p.m.

UNLV recycling guru Tara Pike-Nordstrom said the university will be participating by powering down residence halls and other buildings during Earth Hour. Pike-Nordstrom and her colleagues will be offering food and games outside for students who join in the demonstration.

Earth Hour is yet another example of Las Vegans joining together to better the environment. During the difficult economic climate, many people are struggling to manage their own resources, let alone the Earth’s. But Cynthia Stimple of Greener Vegas said that hard times often serve to remind people that materials are indeed limited.

“We are going to be forced to become more resourceful,” Stimple said. “I think it’s a good thing…and if we turn around our attitudes about the future, it really is a land of plenty.”

Pike-Nordstrom also has hope for Las Vegas. She said she thinks if Clark County approves a switch from red, white and blue residential recycling bins to large comingled toters, which have been shown to increase recycling efforts, it will encourage more residents to recycle. She also hopes to see the RecycleBank program, which mails rewards, coupons and other incentives to people when a chip in the recycling truck senses they have been filling their bins or toters, instituted in the city.

“I have a lot of hope for our community in terms of recycling,” Pike-Nordstrom said. “I think we’re going to get better. We need to get better.”

For more information about Greener Vegas, visit www.greenervegas.org. To find out more about UNLV's Rebel Recycling program, go to facilities.unlv.edu/recycling.

By Caitlin McGarry

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