Las Vegas resort announces new PPE recycling program

The Venetian Resort has expanded Sands ECO360 recycling efforts as the first Las Vegas-based property to develop a program to recycle surgical face masks, which are being used by guests and team members as part of the resort's Venetian Clean initiatives.   

The Sands ECO360 global sustainability strategy is designed to help minimize environmental impact in building development and resort operations.

As part of this pilot project, in partnership with Trenton, New Jersey-based TerraCycle, the discarded masks are collected on-site at The Venetian Resort and sent to a recycling facility where they are separated, shredded and densified into a crumb-like raw material. This material will be used to make repurposed products such as composite lumber for shipping pallets, railroad ties and composite decking, TerraCycle reports.

“Our responsibility to the planet is one of our company’s core values,” says George Markantonis, president and chief operating officer of The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. “Our Sands ECO360 global sustainability initiative was designed to help minimize our environmental impact, and it reflects our vision as a leader in sustainable resort operations.”

“At TerraCycle, our mission has always been to eliminate waste, recycle the unrecyclable and use our innovative business solutions to minimize human impact on the planet,” says Tom Szaky, TerraCycle founder and CEO. “It’s through partnerships like the one we enjoy with The Venetian Resort that allows us to fulfill our objective and help preserve the environment for future generations.”

Since reopening in June 2020, The Venetian Resort began diverting discarded surgical face masks from other waste being sent to landfills through a trash-sorting initiative on the property.

In addition to this program, the resort actively sorts its trash, diverting 27 types of items that would otherwise be sent to landfills. According to TerraCycle, through this program, between 55-60 percent of waste is diverted from local landfills, a number that surpasses the national average of 32 percent, or the state average of 23 percent.

“As a company that has put sustainability in the forefront of our operation, it was important to find a recycling solution for this PPE, to avoid sending them to our landfills,” Markantonis says.

This project, part of the resort’s Sands ECO360 initiative, will help provide “proof of concept” for such recycling, to encourage others to replicate the program, TerraCycle reports in a news release. Currently, consumer masks are not recycled through main-stream or curbside recycling programs because of the complexity of the recycling process. Surgical face masks are made of a multitude of materials and need to be sorted and separated before recycling. In addition, a magnet is used to separate the metal nose strips, which can be melted and used in other recycled materials.