PPAI has received the commodity report from MGM confirming that The PPAI Expo 2026 diverted 90% of potential waste from landfills, officially making it a Zero Waste event.
- This is the second consecutive year that The PPAI Expo diverted at least 90% of waste from the event.
- The prior year, at The PPAI Expo 2024, the Association, just missed that mark, diverted 88% of waste.
This was achieved through a layered, multifaceted process, the vast majority of which took placed behind the scenes. The trash that attendees threw away was later sorted. Food was sorted out from other trash. Different materials were sorted into what could be donated or sold together. Recycled material was sorted from any possible landfill. Additionally, booth teardowns on the show floor following the event contributed to significant donations towards redirected waste.
- PPAI pays for an advanced sorting of the waste generated. As a result, additional teams are brought on-site to sort the waste into over 30 different streams of categories to avoid it ending up in a landfill.
- Here is the commodity report for further reading (visual below).
A breakdown of the materials that accounted for the waste at The PPAI Expo 2026, data made possible by the detailed on-site sorting that went into the recycling process:
According to Elizabeth Wimbush, CAS, PPAI’s director of sustainability and responsibility, that 90% number, while worth celebrating, is more representative of what PPAI envisions as the floor for future events. An enormous amount of effort and planning go into diverting that much waste, but PPAI has the knowledge and the tools to continue to make Expo a Waste Free event, and improvement will be the expectation.
“We will continue to work with our exhibitor members to minimize friction and understanding of the donation process,” Wimbush says. “We have stickers available to mark any item as donation during tear down. All to further reduce the amount of material sent to landfill. We champion progress over perfection, and this is one of the best places to walk the walk. We continue to learn from and improve on our processes to make Expo a Zero Waste event every year.”
Elizabeth Wimbush, CAS
Director of Sustainability & Responsibility
PPAI works in collaboration MGM to ensure that The PPAI Expo is as sustainable an event as possible. During The PPAI Expo Conference, attendees were able to participate in a Sustainability Tour hosted by Kristen Royal, director of sustainable operations at MGM Resorts, who explained that such drastic measures were taken to prevent waste because it’s the right thing to do and because it benefits the larger company.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you that we made money off of recycling,” Royal says. “And we are expanding how much materials we are making money off recycling, too. Waste is always a sign of inefficient design.”
100% Solar Powered And Other Expo Sustainability Facts
You’d be forgiven for coming to The PPAI Expo and not focusing entirely on its sustainability bonafides. There’s plenty of areas the Association is looking to improve, but there’s still plenty to be proud of when you come back and think about what you were a part of.
A very recent example is MGM’s solar panels on the roof of Mandalay Bay, as well as the property’s solar array in the desert – totaling 20,000 solar panels – which now fully power all of MGM’s properties on the Las Vegas strip during the day. The properties essentially operate as their own utility provider when it comes to solar, having mostly divested from the electrical grid.
Other facts include:
- Water refill stations were conveniently located throughout the show floor and Mandalay Bay, and PPAI provided free reusable water bottles provided by Koozie Group.
- Those water bottles were refilled just under 6,700 times, potentially avoiding the purchase of thousands of single-use water bottles.
- MGM has reduced water intensity by 37% since 2007, with 75% of water returned to Lake Mead.
- 2026 marked the third anniversary of PPAI’s circularity initiative recycling lanyards.
- Show materials, including the directory, used FSC-certified, responsibly sourced paper.
