The 24th annual Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off will fill up the City of Sparks through Monday.
Not only are organizers seeing green in their pocketbooks, they're also making the event as environmentally green as possible.
For the last two years, John Ascuaga's Nugget and Castaway Trash have teamed up and the results have been nothing but positive.
"The Nugget came to us with an idea of wanting to be green," says Steve Duque with Castaway Trash.
There is now one area of the cook-off, which is 100 percent recyclable. All the plates, cups, napkins, and utensils used in Rib Village are made from compostable material.
"People are excited about it," says Duque. "They like to see the fact that a huge property like the Nugget is taking the necessary steps to be green."
Even outside of Rib Village, there are spots to recycle and compost. Because of that, 20 tons of food and material from last year's event was kept out of landfills.
"The organizations are doing it, then it encourages the individual person to do things like that at their homes and stuff," says Sparks resident Kristi Eash.
Folks inside Rib Village like the new setup with all recyclable materials, but say they were surprised it wasn't advertised.
"We had no idea about that until now, and I definitely think that should be something that people should know about because that is a very exciting thing," says Sparks resident Ashley Clendenin.
The Nugget is definitely spending more money to go green, but Duque says it's a trend he's seen grow tremendously over the years.
"When conventions look to book with a resort, they want to know what those green practices are," he says. "They want to know the steps that that property is taking to be environmentally friendly."
Because of these changes, last year, the rib cook-off saw a 33 percent reduction in trash over the 6 day event.
Written by Adam Rasmussen
