McCarran International Airport
Las Vegas has massive amounts of visitors a year and most of them start their Las Vegas experience at McCarran International Airport. So it stands to reason this is a good place to start with the Green Experience. I work part time at the airport for a major airline so what they do is always of interest to me.
When the home builders show was in town last month a lot of the convention was about GREEN PRODUCTS.
I wrote not to long ago about some of these trends. Building Trends 2009
Well McCarran has a plan, they got together 17 people from different departments around the airport and have started to implement some of their ideas.
First thing I noticed was the car companies change. Up until about this time last year, all car companies had booths at the airport and an offsite car pick up. Each company had their own BIG bus that drove you over to their site.
Now there is one site for all companies and their offices are also at this site. There is one shuttle (many but one kind) that take the people to the off site. These buses are run on biodiesel fuel. To quote the airport,
"Existing efforts to reduce air pollution and conserve energy include implementing a fleet of common-use, cleanburning biodiesel buses that run between the airport and the McCarran Rent-A-Car Center; requiring commercial vehicle operators to shut down their engines upon parking, loading or unloading customers; minimizing the release of volatile organic compounds by purchasing more water-based paints and non-aerosol cleaning products; providing central power and air conditioning units for aircraft at the gates; upgrading escalators and moving walkways with energy efficient equipment; and upgrading airfield lighting with LED technology"
This week appeared all over the airport, McCarran's commitment to RECYCLE these new receptacles are plainly marked and quite attractive.
Again in the words of McCarran
"McCarran's employees, tenants and customers generate approximately 14,300 tons of garbage each year, much of which includes recyclables like paper, plastic and aluminum. Desk-side recycle bins were placed in all administrative offices in 2006, diverting approximately 24 tons of plastic, aluminum and paper annually from local landfills. In 2007, the DOA partnered with the Blind Center of Nevada to host annual E-Waste Recycling events at McCarran, giving employees, tenants and airlines the opportunity to shed unwanted computers, copiers, cell phones, mice and more. Through this two-year partnership, we‘ve diverted approximately 12,000 pounds of electronics from local landfills.
Separately, in August 2008 the department began recycling scrap aluminum, copper, steel and iron. To date, McCarran has earned nearly $3000 by recycling more than 47 tons of sundry metals through its partnership with Nevada-based Silver Dollar Recycling. The Environmental Conservation Committee has also worked aggressively to develop a passenger-oriented program for recycling travelers' beverage containers and paper, and has also installed recycle containers in all employee break rooms.
The recycling program will be implemented in two phases. First, the non-secure areas of McCarran‘s Terminal 1 will be equipped with waste stations that include separate cans for trash, aluminum and plastic, and paper by February 2009. Phase two will place similar waste stations beyond the security checkpoints, in outlying office buildings and at the county's general aviation airports ."
I WILL BE KEEPING MY EYE ON THESE PROJECTS AS THEY ARE IMPLEMENTED. They have more things planned as I have read their commitment to becoming a good GREEN Neighbor.
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