Making Trade Shows Greener

Trade shows and conventions are the second most wasteful industry, and Sin City stays true to its name once again by being the world’s trade show capitol. Fortunately, Sin City is getting cleaner with the help of Zachary Delbex-Smith. This 25 year-old is the creator of Greener Vegas – a company that is working to partner with trade shows and conventions in order to make them more environmentally friendly. Delbex-Smith’s passion was first ignited at a young age in being 1 of 7 welfare children who were taught not to waste. His passion still burning in later years, he came to witness first-hand the enormous amounts of waste created in Las Vegas while working 150 shows in the past six years in the Teamsters Union.

Greener Vegas is really the first of its kind. Delbex-Smith has noted that trade shows are not wasteful for lack of planning, they just have time constraints and lack of storage issues. No business is currently available for such recycling services, which is why this industry would be such a huge accomplishment.

Zachary Delbex-Smith is full of great ideas to make Las Vegas a greener city. Among them, he wants Greener Vegas to offer a weekly bottle pick-up service for night clubs and a phonebook drive every time casinos change or update phonebooks. It is estimated that 100,000 pounds of paper go wasted from just main casinos every time they change phone books. However, he does not have the financial means to make them all happen quite yet. Greener Vegas currently recycles trade show magazines, food, and left behind products. Over the past year, while also working full-time, Delbex-Smith has proudly helped recycle 415,000 pounds of paper and forged partnerships from Vegas Trade Shows. Greener Vegas is currently in the process of applying for non-profit status, which would allow their recyclable donations to be tax write-offs.

Greener Vegas also wants to help its citizens be more environmentally conscious. The program is looking into speaking about recycling and ways to conserve energy at local schools in order to educate children about environmental dangers at a young age. There are many simple ways to reduce your carbon tracks every day. Greener Vegas offers ideas to make your own community a greener community and more information about their accomplishments at www.greenervegas.org.
-Jackie Medler