Agua Caliente to implement innovative technology to drastically reduce waste
An innovative technology called ORCA has quite an ambitious promise; in 24 hours, it can take 2,400 pounds of food waste and convert it to environmentally safe water, that can flow directly into a sewage system, bypassing the need for a landfill entirely.
The aim may seem too good to be true but at the Agua Caliente Resort and Casino, the revolutionary tech will start making a real-world impact in no time at all.
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians announced Thursday via news release that the system would be implemented at their Rancho Mirage casino in an effort to reduce its environmental impact. The new system is just one of several technological leaps forward the casino has pursued to help reduce its carbon footprint.
“Agua Caliente has completed energy efficiency lighting conversion projects in its parking areas that included the replacement of more than 700 light bulbs with LED bulbs,” reads the release. “In addition, 90 percent of the interior spaces have been converted to LED lighting, including all 340 guest rooms, and 75 percent of all landscape lighting has been converted. These and other cumulative efforts have resulted in a savings of nearly 1.3 million kilowatt-hours back to the local power grid.”
Additionally, a recycling program enacted at the casino in March 2017 has reprocessed 478,000 pounds of No.1 plastics, cardboard, and aluminum.
“This innovative technology in food waste processing will allow us to become a leader in the Coachella Valley for recycling our food waste,” Agua Caliente Casino Resort spa facilities director James Stone says. “The ORCA is an outstanding addition to our already successful recycling efforts currently underway.”
Agua Caliente will be the first hotel property in the Coachella Valley to install the ORCA technology on its premises. The proposed waste-reduction is plenty impressive, but the science behind the tech is pretty noteworthy in its own right:
“The ORCA’s proprietary, natural Microorganism solution works with water and recycled biochips to quickly break down the waste,” reads the release. ‘Through a process called “aerobic digestion-‘ the ORCA technology constantly churns all this material, adding oxygen that accelerates the time it takes to transform the food waste disposal into earth-friendly water.”
With the help of ORCA, the resort will be able to divert an estimated 634 tons of food waste away from landfills each year. Less waste dumped, less gas spent trucking trash to the dump – the benefits of ORCA are much like its exhaust; clear.
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