program
has made one of Las Vegas’ most popular meeting places a green
oasis by shipping out the toxic remains of spent light bulbs.
Las Vegas Convention &
Visitors Authority (LVCVA) was founded to strengthen the area’s
convention business and eliminate a troubling economic problem:
the cyclical nature of the tourism industry. But the LVCVA
doesn’t just market this city’s gambling and pleasure palaces.
It operates the Cashman Center as well as the Las Vegas
Convention Center, which totals 3.5 million square feet of
meeting rooms and exhibition space.
How many light bulbs does it take to illuminate
such a facility? More than electrical supervisor Joe
Toro
cares to count. Seven years ago, Toro took it upon himself to
find a method for disposing the thousands of fluorescent light
bulbs he and his six member crew replace each year. He could no
longer tolerate the existing recycling plan: store spent bulbs
in cardboard boxes (30 or so per container), and then wait for
them to be hauled away by various trucking services.
The boxes took up valuable storage space-and
occasionally they would tumble, causing breakage. This created
even greater problems: The hauler refused to remove broken
bulbs. Why? They contain mercury, which is linked to serious
health issues, such as blurred vision, severe convulsions, and
birth defects. As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency
regulates fluorescent lamps and sets strict guidelines for their
disposal.
“We had too many problems with boxes being
stored, or lamps that don’t fit in boxes, or they fall off the
back of the truck. Too much hassle and too much money for the
service we were getting,” Toro said.
Toro began searching online for an onsite
solution after a colleague recommended a lamp-crushing system.
It wasn’t long before found the Bulb Eater, developed by Air
Cycle Corp. of Broadview, IL.
“I realized that this was an
environmentally-friendly piece of equipment that would speed up
production about five hundred percent compared to the other way.
It’s been well worth it.”
With two machines, Toro and his crew do the
majority of lamp crushing. The OSHA and EPA-compliant device
crushes over 1,000 fluorescent lamps (amount depends on size of
lamps) and packs them into a 55-gallon drum. The process is
fully enclosed and filtered, so that the glass, aluminum, and
harmful vapors are contained. When full, the drums are picked up
and transported to an EPA-approved lamp recycling facility – all
arranged by Air Cycle.
When Toro requested funding for the lamp
crushers, no one was forcing him to comply with anything but
common sense. “We were never told to do it. This was a voluntary
process that I started. I just took this upon myself. It’s not
right to throw lamps into the landfill. Environmentally,
recycling is the right thing to do. We want to look good in the
public eye. It was a smart choice.”
Very smart and prescient, too.
Not only did Toro provide a safe environment for employees and
guests, when the EPA finally visited, the LVCVA already could
boast a green track record. In this day and age, anything less
than EPA compliance can cause serious troubles for corporations
and other businesses.
For example, the discovery of
illegal dumping habits may cause the EPA to slap a company with
penalty fees in excess of $250,000. Even worse, a delinquent
firm could be forced to cleanup a remote and costly Superfund
site. And then there is the matter of public perception.
A company that defiles the
environment is not a good neighbor – or host – and such a
revelation could lead to a public relations disaster. Not the
kind of attention craved by LVCVA, which has an annual budget of
$284 million for fiscal year 2008 and has 574 authorized
employment positions.
Toro slashed his recycling
costs to about $0.30 per lamp, and as a result, LVCVA has
approved Toro’s request to upgrade the machines in 2008. The new
Premium Bulb Eater not only crushes spent fluorescent lamps of
any length into 100 percent recyclable material, but also
captures over 99.99 percent of the vapors released. The
three-stage filtering process removes hazardous particulates and
gases, and can now hold up to 1350 fluorescent lamps. Also, a
new safety control panel has also been added, giving the
operator added security by monitoring seven aspects of the
machine to better ensure operator safety.
Toro said he and the LVCVA
have been so busy growing the convention center, there has been
no time to toot their green horn. But the 13-year employee said
that will change soon.
“We’ve started talking about
showing Las Vegas just what we do. You look at what’s going on
in the world today…we don’t need to be contributing to that.”
❑
Douglas Glenn Clark
