Atlantis Casino in Reno to stop serving plastic straws for all beverages

RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — The Atlantis Casino Resort in Reno will become the first casino in northern Nevada to implement the new straw policy.

Effectively immediately, the casino will stop offering straws for all beverages. Straws will be available upon request. This includes: plastic straws, stir sticks and cocktail sipping straws.

The new policy fall in line with the energy and water efficiency initiatives the casino-resort has implemented over the last several years. Most recently, the Atlantis partnered with a high-tech water company WINT, which provides to-the-minute analysis on water usage. This technology is the first of its kind to be used in the United States, and can tell engineers immediately when water usage is outside of its normal parameters, saving both water and money.

Experts at Eco-Cycle predict that 500 million straws are used every day in the United States, a number that could fill over 127 school buses each day. Most of those straws are non-biodegradable and do not compost, ending up in landfills and oceans.