Las Vegas’ Morrow Royal Pavilion is a warehouse-sized manufacturing facility made of 500,000 glass bottles. Why does it look like the building from this Rolling Stones poster, and not like the inside of your recycling bin? Well, because it’s modeled on that building (Swarkestone Hall Pavilion in central England), and because the glass bottles have actually been pulverized, mixed with fly ash, and fashioned into a material called GreenStone.
Realm of Design, the company that makes GreenStone, collects glass bottles from Las Vegas hotels (which undoubtedly produce empties at an alarming rate). According to the company, the Morrow pavilion used 290,000 pounds of glass and saved over 400,000 cubic yards of landfill space. Now it’s Realm of Design’s manufacturing space, churning out more GreenStone to make more glass houses. Realm of Design apparently specializes in ornate architecture for rich people, but you know, people who live in glass houses etc. etc. I guess it’s better if they make their wasteful water fixtures out of GreenStone rather than Realm of Design’s other materials options, right? Right?
So basically, if you go to Vegas, you now have an official license — nay, a duty — to drink as much as you want, as long as it’s something that comes in a bottle. The 1% and their baroque, environmentally friendly pool fixtures are counting on you.
