After telling most people that Film Biz Recycling's mission of diverting media production waste from landfills, the most common reply is, "Wow, I never thought about all the stuff left over. " I say, "That's okay, most people that work on a film don't think about it either." But that is changing and we see it everyday.

You are not supposed to be aware of set decoration and design, good art direction is subtle, real and natural. The aesthetic design of the film is imperative to the subconscious belief that the milieu has always existed and this is really happening.

Well, that is accomplished every day, and in it's wake, tons of carpeting, decor, paint, furniture, live plants, plates, wall paper, curtain rods (sigh) the list is endless. Just look around you where ever you are sitting right now. Look at the floor, the walls ceiling, furniture, appliances...if you had to get rid of it in 10 hours and have it spic and span, what would you do? Call a dumpster to haul it away? Well, that has been the answer to many an art department. Some crew don't care, most go home shaking their heads thinking about the shame of it all.


Enter Film Biz Recycling - a not for profit dedicated helping an industry clean its own plate.

We're film-friendly, teamster savvy, PA-liking, ex-art department crusaders and we want you to drop off all your production's unwanted materials and we'll take of it. 60% goes to charity and the creme de la creme is rented and sold in our Prop Shop to fund the mission. Note that now nine people have jobs and health insurance because of creative reuse and the will of the industry's boots on the ground.

No one really knows how many tons and how much money - that said...

• a TV show can budget $30,000 an episode x 13 episodes x 4 seasons is $1,560,000 dollars
• NYC is host to about 15 shows - that's just over $23 million - just in TV show decor
  
• NYC usually has about 300 films a year x $60,000 in set decorating budgets= $18 million
  
• Approximately 4,000 commercials and videos are shot in NYC have been estimated with an average of $12,000 in set decoration budgets, that's $48 million dollars in purchases.
  
• it's not unheard of for a film to spend a million dollars on lumber and trash it all. SALT and Meet Joe Black among them
  
• one dumpster holds about 2.25 tons of lumber - a general amount of dumpsters needed after a movie is about 15-35 dumpsters
• there is no standard for disposing props and set decoration from the top - it's usually decided upon by whatever crew member is in charge.
• Film Biz Recycling, as a start-up not for profit has diverted 180 tons since 2oo8
• productions might have had set sales and toss the rest in the "good ol' days".
  
• no one is watching
  

Film Biz and Long Island City Biz.

“Treating sustainability as a goal today, early [adopters] will develop competencies that rivals will be hard pressed to match.” The Harvard Business Review (09/09)

Egregiously wasteful and occasionally toxic practices is the ugly underbelly to New York City’s economically imperative and exciting film industry. Filmmaking does not have to be an environmentally and socially irresponsible disaster and, like all industries (the film biz is hardly alone), a commitment has to be made to address climate change, seek alternatives, reward innovation and ultimately, save money by closing the industrial loop, creating green jobs, reducing waste and ultimately, achieving a carbon-neutral operation.

Founded in May 2008, Film Biz Recycling (FBR) is a niche-market hybrid not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping the entertainment industry address the triple bottom line: profit, people and planet. Its founder, Eva Radke, a 15-year veteran of TV commercials and film, spent countless hours looking for a safe home for items purchased and used for shoots. Items such as carpeting, lumber, paint, furniture, pillows, wardrobe, fabric, subflooring, lighting, partial rolls of tape, rugs, fake flowers, plexi-glass, set paper, vases, dishes, sporting equipment, cribs, etc. sometimes went into a dumpsters if Craig’s List did not pan out, the crew did not want it or the donation centers were closed or had certain hours and requisites. There had to be a better way, but there wasn’t. The film business needed an organization that understood the language, timing, and specialized knowledge that only a seasoned insider can provide. Film Biz Recycling was born and on a mission.

Two years after it’s inception, over 122 tons of materials from over 164 productions have been diverted from landfills. Most of these materials have been laterally diverted to it’s partners in the reuse sector, most of which are in Long Island City and Astoria. Build it Green! a huge building supply reuse center in Astoria sees a lot of raw materials and large items from the productions. Other Long Island City reuse facilities have received, literally, tons of materials via Film Biz Recycling. These include the esteemed Materials for the Arts, Hour Children, Housing Works, Blissful Bedrooms and of course, Goodwill Industries and Salvation Army. Giving away unwanted items saves the production companies disposal costs, keeps them out of landfills and has an immediate public good by creating green jobs in reuse centers who sells them at a lower cost – saving everyone money. This is the triple bottom line we speak of, profit, people and planet.

The crème de la crème of the donations stay in-house for sale and rent to fund operations. Film Biz Recycling Props, located on 43-26 12th street 4 blocks from Silver Cup Studios in Long Island City, is New York’s only not-for-profit prop house and boutique, open to the public and to the trade. It’s a museum-like wonderland of beautiful objects d’art, oddities, furniture, art and everything in between donated by projects such as Sex and the City 2, Doubt, America’s Next Top Model, Salt, 30 Rock and slews of TV commercials in exchange for a tax deduction. Locals, set decorators, eco-interior designers, supermodels, tourists and LIC business owners shop here for home and business and can not believe: that everything came from a production, nobody wanted it, how inexpensive everything is, how gorgeous the shop is and in the past it all ended up in a dumpster.

Long Island City business owners who have discovered this “best kept secret” store have saved time and money shopping here. Next time you are walking down Vernon Boulevard, check out Ethereal, a lovely clothing boutique. The throw rug came from a Dell commercial, the “grass” from MTV’s Making of the Band and they are renting velvet ropes for a special event in May . They paid under a hundred dollars for a Spring makeover and renting the velvet ropes for 90% less than what it would cost to buy and they do not have to store anything they needed for just one day. That’s smart business and green business.

Film Biz Props is an incredible resource for small business owners looking for high-impact beauty with a low carbon impact. Reuse means new materials were not mined, produced, packaged or shipped and it’s easy on the bottom line and the eye! New businesses, particularly restaurants and boutiques can scoop up armfuls of décor on a shoestring budget. For example, when Slice, an organic pizza bistro, opened a second location in the Village, they wanted to stay true to their good and good for you mission by decorating with high-quality, beautiful items with as little environmental impact as possible. Miki Agrawal, founder and owner, has bought 100% of the flower vases, wine carafes, salad plates, bread baskets, and other accoutrement for a fraction of what she would pay retail. “I love the mission, I love the prices and I love the stuff!” Miki exclaims. “It’s right in line with our mission of healthy food and earth-friendly ways…and it all came from films, so customers like to talk about it.”


Reuse centers almost always have a mission that purchases support. Build it Green helps fund Solar One, Materials for the Arts gives free items to schools, and not-for-profits, Hour Children supports children of incarcerated parents, Housing Works gives a second chance to homeless AIDS patients. Support of Film Biz Recycling allows us to support these great organizations with saleable items, be a leader and voice for this industry while informing the crew and production companies of sustainable methods, and disseminating that information to the community.

On a larger scale, Film Biz Recycling seeks to connect the industry with other industries, communities and future-friendly organizations via collaboration, lateral thinking and volunteerism. Our materials can change lives. Our unique skills can move mountains so let’s be a shining light to the rest of the world! Every industry can replicate the impact Film Biz Recycling has had on New York City’s film world in their own realm, it just takes a little ingenuity, persistence and elbow grease. Nothing Long Island City can’t handle.

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A 12 ton week!

The week of March 30th 2009 was a big week for Film Biz Recycling, charities and the environment. Instead of filling dumpsters, the New York City film industry is choosing to address environmental and social bottom lines by donating all goods to Film Biz Recycling. We, in turn, donate 90% of the donations to local charities.

The reuse center is coming right along!



Here's how the week went down:

We received donations from:

Life on Mars ( TV show)
Away We Go (feature)
Jack Goes Boating (feature)
The Extra Man (feature)
and 2 commericials

Lots of boxes and sorting and heavy lifting. All in all, last week was an estimated 12 TON week - lots of stuff, but not all of it we keep - not even close.

New York Clothing Bank got all the wardrobe sent directly to their warehouse.

Materials for the Arts is picking up a half a truckload from us next week.

Hour Children is picking 8 boxes of new children's clothes and toys.

Housing Works had an entire truck of beautiful furniture go directly to their warehouse as well a weekly pick up of used bubble wrap and used boxes (they do a lot of shipping)

Build it Green received 12 sinks, plumbing, lighting and some beautiful furniture.

Goodwill received two huge loads of home goods and clothing.

It's really amazing to watch the film industry contribute to all these different organizations. As an industry, I see more and more responsible decisions being made. We all have horror stories about dumpsters and perfectly good things going to waste. Slowly and surely that will be a practice in the past.

We do keep about 10% of the item for our Reuse Center and prop house. It helps us sustain operations and continue to advocate and research sustainable practices related to media production.

If you'd like to donate to Film Biz Recycling click here!

Coen Brothers Compost and divert 11.1 tons

Guest writer for Film Biz Recycling, Shannon E. Schaefer of
EcoSet Consulting, LLC, writes of her experience. Amazing!

11.1 Tons of Waste, Diverted

Last fall I had the honor to work on the Coen Brother’s latest feature film, “A Serious Man”. Throughout the 44 day shoot, and with the support of FOCUS Features we were able to divert 11.1 tons of set waste. Nearly 80% of the 14 tons of trash produced on set did not end up in the incinerators of Minneapolis, Minnesota. How? It was simple. We composted.

We recycled as well. But in the end, recycling our cardboard, bottles and cans accounted for less than one ton (6%) of our total set waste. This low percentage is in part because we provided reusable bottles and water stations, limiting the amount of plastic on set. Plastic water bottles were not totally banned, but the availability of water stations prevented over 10,000 plastic water bottles from being used. Not bad.

What about other 74% of our trash? We returned 10.3 tons of the set waste to the earth, via the age-old practice of composting.

Composting is fantastic. The sheer amount of set waste it can convert to “black gold” puts our old environmental “recycling is good enough” mantra to shame. We were able to compost virtually ALL of our catering and craft service waste: fruit, veggies, meat, bones, dairy, sugarcane plates and bowls, paper and corn cups, corn utensils, and paper napkins. Basically anything that was once an animal or a plant is now compost.

Our compost site wasn’t just any farmer’s pile. With the help of non-profit Eureka Recycling and local hauler Boone Trucking, we sent all of our plant and animal based waste to a commercial composting site. Commercial sites are different than a traditional backyard compost pile because they are well monitored and reach a much higher temperature, thus allowing us to compost alternative “plastic” products such as corn (PLA) cups and utensils.

Compostable vs. Biodegradable and Landfills

There is a common misconception about compostable and biodegradable products and what actually happens when you throw them away. With the rising popularity of “green” caterers and events using the alternative disposable products (corn/potato-ware, etc) I would like to take a moment explain what this actually means for the environment.

Biodegradable material is capable of being completely broken down into carbon dioxide, water and biomass with the aid of microorganisms. Compostable material biodegrades, but only under specific conditions – for example, the regulated high temperatures of a commercial composting site.

All of the PLA (polylactic acid, usually made from corn) products biodegrade only in high temperature compost conditions. Some potatoware and bagasse plate/bowl products (bagasse is the fibrous material leftover after sugarcane juice is extracted from its stalk) may biodegrade more readily, but do so fastest when in a controlled compost environment.

These organic based disposable products are a good alternative to plastic, which can take hundreds of years to decompose. It is also favorable that often they are produced in a more sustainable fashion than their plastic counterparts. But this is where the green party ends. When you throw your corn fork in the trash it goes to a landfill and as it breaks down it produces the same green house gas, methane, as any other garbage. Not only that but the organic acids produced in the biodegradation process create a toxic heavy metal leachate. Who would have thought corn to be so foul?

When the same PLA fork gets commercially composted, hydrolysis and microbial action breaks it down into carbon dioxide and water. Better? Yes. Perfect? No. There is no “best practice” when it comes to disposable products. There is still much debate about the sustainability of corn products such as PLA as well as other alternative goods. For now, it’s a step away from plastic and in the right direction. If you really want to be sustainable, use reusable flatware. If that is not an option, compost!

Start Composting on Set

Implementing composting takes a little effort, education and planning, and the resources are not everywhere yet. But demand brings supply. Please support your local haulers and commercial compost sites as well as the craft service and caterers who are attempting to “go green.” If the implementation of one new system was able to bring the Coen Brother’s set to 80% waste diversion so easily, I believe one day all film production sets could be at 100% zero waste. That is when filmmaking will start to become truly sustainable.


Shannon E. Schaefer
EcoSet Consulting, LLC
EcoShannon@gmail.com