EPA Honors MGM Resorts’ Bellagio Hotel and Casino for Food Recovery Efforts

MGM Resorts International - Bellagio Hotel and Casino Las Vegas, Nevada, has been recognized by EPA’s Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Michael Stoker with a National Food Recovery Challenge Award. The resort had the greatest percentage food waste reduction of Challenge Hospitality Sector participants. The Bellagio Hotel and Casino is one of 14 National Food Recovery Challenge Award recipients and is the only recipient in Nevada.

MGM Resorts International implemented a new program to donate unserved food from hotel events, mini-bars, and warehouses to Three Square Food Bank in Las Vegas. The hotel donated 6,000 pounds of food, the equivalent of 5,000 meals, to help people in need in the Southern Nevada community. In 2017, the Bellagio Hotel and Casino also diverted 1,904 tons of food waste to pig farms, a 33 percent increase from 2016, and a 378 percent increase from 2015.

Food waste is the single largest type of waste thrown away each year in our daily trash. In 2015, more than 39 million tons of food waste was generated. At the same time, approximately 12 percent of America’s households have difficulty providing enough food for all of their family members. MGM’s leadership has provided a model to lessen these impacts and has brought us closer to meeting our national goal to reduce food waste by 50 percent by the year 2030.