Public Gaming International November/December 2021

35 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 Renewing the facility and significantly reducing pollutants has made the plant a safer place to work, with positive impacts on both the environment and employee’ well-being. RECYCLING &WASTE RECLAMATION In 2020, the Lakeland facility partnered with a waste processing company to reduce the waste sent to landfills, with the goal of reducing the facility’s community and local wildlife exposure to environmental issues, reducing the generation of greenhouse gas, and mitigating groundwater contamination from its waste stream. A significant amount of paper dust is created during the production and packaging of scratch-off tickets, which is then compacted and extruded. While traditional recycling markets are not interested in compacted dust, IGT’s program partner NuCycle fully utilizes the compacted dust by combining it with other combustible products to produce an energy-dense, highly engineered fuel product called EnviroFuelcubes (EFCs), a valid alternative fuel source in the energy- intensive industrial manufacturing and utility power-generation sectors. But that’s just one small piece of the NuCycle program. It also provides for the conversion of all the other manufacturing waste, including the plastic buckets and lids that house materials, the packaging waste, any damaged wood pallets and crates, the plate material, film material, roll cores and protectors, roll plugs, and shrink-wrap waste. The landfill waste reduction program at Lakeland targets the production of landfill waste at less than 3% annually. In 2020, the program removed more than seven million pounds of waste from landfills, of which more than one million pounds was used to make alternative fuel. In 2021, IGT again won an FTA Sustainability Excellence Award, in recognition of the landfill reduction program with NuCycle. FSC PAPER IGT relies heavily on the supply of paper for instant ticket production. The company works to reduce the impact of paper consumption on natural resources in line with the commitments of its major paper suppliers, which abide by several environmental standards. These include the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC), a global, not-for-profit organization which defines standards based on agreed principles for responsible forest stewardship. The Lakeland facility is certified by a third- party registrar as an FSC Chain or Custody certified facility for paper products. “We exist to serve the needs of our customers, and operating under the FSC certification meets an important need,” notes Keith Cash, IGT Vice President Global Instant Tickets, and IGT promotes and encourages this use. REDUCING PLASTICS To reduce the quantity of plastic pails used to print custom/Pantone Matching System colors, IGT has installed an ink color-match and mixing center on site in Lakeland. This program has greatly reduced the quantity of plastic pails used by IGT’s ink suppliers and reduced ink waste, because the ink is mixed only according to the specific needs of the business product. The Lakeland printing facility also has an extensive recycling program in place, whereby all wastepaper from the printing process is recycled. For IGT, these steps are only one part of a larger focus on Fostering Sustainable Operations. “By having flexibility and an environmental focus at our printing facilities in Lakeland, our customers have options as to how their tickets are made. It’s a good message to consumers that the instant ticket in their hand came from a sustainably minded supply chain,” says Keith Cash. Scenes from IGT’s award-wining North American printing facility in Lakeland, Florida. A range of environmentally friendly practices at this facility allow customers to participate in a sustainably minded