Death by Chocolate

By Crystal Landes

You’ve been at work for 12 hours now. They’ve just shot that scene, again. You’re tired and you’re hungry. So you head to the craftee table. You see fruits and veggies, but what you really want is something sugary. Chocolate!

Chocolate is an exotic treat, that we, as Westerners have the privilege of indulging in and indulge we do by consuming 3 ½ billion tons every year. That’s a lot of chocolate, which means we have a huge responsibility to use our spending power and change the way the business is run. There are three main issues that come with every Snickers, Twix or bag of M&M’s you eat. First the packaging is not made out of recyclable materials, secondly the cocoa is not fair trade and third it’s not shade grown.

400 million M&M’s are made daily. None of the wrappers for any sweets made by the Mars Inc. company, including M&M’s, Snickers, Mars Bars, Skittles, Milky Way or Twix are made out of recyclable material, except for M&M’s Minis, which come in a little plastic tube. If 400 million M&M’s are made daily then we can assume that roughly the same number is made of the other Mars sweets. That comes to approximately 8 billion non-recyclable wrappers on a daily basis! How many of these sweet confections do you see on your craft services table or in your office snack hub?

By now we’ve all heard the term fair trade and shade grown, but why is it so important? Fair trade ensures that the farmers get just that, a fair market value for their product. For every US dollar spent on chocolate, huge companies who deal in non-fair trade get 70 cents, while the farmer only gets 5cents. Shade grown again means what it sounds like, that the cocoa is grown in the shade. This is important because cocoa is happiest growing in the shade provided by other trees canopy, but more importantly because non-shade grown cocoa is contributing to the massive amounts of deforestation that takes place every day. This was made possible in the 1970’s during the “Green Revolution” when they genetically modified cocoa plants to make them able to grown in full sun.
Now I have to admit here, I feel Mars, Inc. is in a similar position as McDonald’s was when Supersize Me came out. While other peer companies are acting in similar ways these two companies seem to get the brunt of the blame. So let’s get this straight, alongside Mars, Inc., these large companies are not using fair trade cocoa: Hershey, Nestle, Russell Stover or Dove. Hershey’s and M&M’s/Mars control 2/3’s of $13 billion US chocolate market.
Because America is the world’s largest chocolate consumer (in 2002 we spent $13.1 billion on the 3.4 billion pounds we consumed) we are in a position to change the way the chocolate industry is run. How? First of all, every dollar you spend is like a vote. You are CHOOSING to buy a product and thus supporting the company, and their values, that make it. We can choose to buy organic, shade-grown, fair trade chocolate. Some national companies who use fair trade, shade grown, organic cocoa are Dagoba, Endangered Species Organic Chocolate, Green & Black’s and many more. But even better are the local artisan chocolate shops such as Jacques Torres Chocolate located in Brooklyn and Manhattan and Travel Chocolate, which is sold at Grand Café and Village Farm and Grocery, both located in Manhattan. Secondly, we can look for wrappers that are made from recycled materials. In addition, we can urge the large companies to use recyclable packaging by calling their toll free numbers, some of which are listed below. Over 70% of the worlds chocolate comes from Africa. While that may seem like worlds away, we can start to make a difference here in the US by making changes in our daily spending habits, personally for ourselves and professionally in our offices.

Hershey 800-468-1714
M&M/Mars Inc. 800-627-7852
Nestle 800-851-0512
Russell Stover 800-777-4028
Dove 800-551-0704

Away We Go - to support a film we can all be proud of.

Focus Features (Milk, Coraline) has made incredible strides with the film, Away We Go. They used alternative fuels, composted, had no disposable water bottles, reduced film stock and chemicals use and more. During prep, they planned the production of a beautiful film with a greatly reduced bitter environmental after taste.

All the players mentioned, Focus Features, Jane Evans, Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda and Green Media Solutions are all the real deal. I’ve met them all and know first hand how dedicated they all are to sustainable and responsible film making.

As a community, I hope you see it fit to support this film by going to see it in the theatre. They have not tried to capitalize on this film being green or thrust these facts in our faces. They did what every production should do, which is make a quality motion picture and quietly and bravely address the triple bottom line.

You can find mention here and there of what they have done to reduce their impact on the environment, but I can tell you, they have had a direct, immediate and positive impact on New York City’s charities, arts and reuse organizations.

Via Film Biz Recycling, Focus Features enormous donation of wardrobe and set dressing went to these organizations: all baby and pregnancy items went to Hour Children, building materials and furniture to Build it Green!, and entire tractor trailer of furniture went to Housing Works, Materials for the Arts and Goodwill Industries also received set dressing and art supplies, New York Clothing Bank got over 40 wardrobe boxes. It was incredible. Of course, FBR kept a few, carefully selected item for the not-for-profit prop house.

Below are more details. I hope you are inspired and feel the winds of positive change are upon us. We are all so lucky to be a part of the filmmaking community, it’s exciting to be part of making it better and proving to every industry that it’s our obligation to produce without pollution and benefit the under-served in the same gesture.

Bravo.



Going Green

While viewers of Away We Go will take note of the actors, the music, the direction and the writing, what will not be readily apparent is that it was made as a “green” production.

What this entailed during filming was that alternative fuels were used; 49% of waste from landfills was redirected into recycling and composting; and carbon emissions were substantially reduced. These guidelines were upheld during a location shoot that spanned three American states (Connecticut, Arizona, and Florida) through the spring of 2008.

In “going green,” everything was separated into five categories – bottles, cans, plastic, compost, and paper – during the production of a mainstream feature film, a rare feat that is anticipated and hoped to become a more common achievement. Away We Go adhered to energy-saving and environmentally friendly guidelines throughout its production.

The production office observed the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)’s Best Practices Guide for Green Production and was advised by Green Media Solutions [f/k/a Earthmark Green Production Consulting]. Executive producer Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda and Focus Features executive vice president of physical production Jane Evans coordinated efforts at every phase of the extensive location filming.

All departments complied with the guidelines, from camera (shooting with three-perf film, which uses 25% less stock and chemicals in the manufacturing and processing) to costumes (using low-energy washers and dryers in the costume shop, and outfitting the characters in vintage or borrowed clothing as much as possible) to sound (using rechargeable batteries) to photography (production and publicity stills were evaluated online rather than via contact sheets).

At all points in the filming, and at each of the three different states lensed in, the production reduced its carbon emissions, or “carbon footprint,” as an on-set recycling program was set up each time. A substantial percentage of the trucks and campers ferrying the cast and crew were using reclaimed Biodiesel 5, a petroleum diesel fuel blend that runs on recycled/collected cooking grease from local restaurants. Away We Go was the first East Coast-based film production to use Biodiesel 5 (B5) on location, and the production was able to procure it in every state.

Winkler-Ioffreda remarks, “Some cities were more progressive in the green movement than others. It takes education, and talking to people, so that better recycling programs can be set up. For instance, once vendors are assured that B5 will not harm engines or vehicles and that the American Trucking Association has approved it, they would sign off on using B5. Our generators ran on it, too.”

Furthering the initiative, the cast and crew availed themselves of environmentally responsible products. Craft services and catering’s biodegradable-only products were recycled and composted; 16 oz. aluminum SIGG water bottles – with filtered tap water made available for refilling daily – were provided to one and all, which in itself kept 10,000 non-biodegradable plastic water bottles out of landfills and off the shooting sites; and organic food was purchased from local purveyors at every leg of the shoot, to cite just a few examples.


Director Sam Mendes enthuses, “To be moving around with a lighter, more deft unit means that it doesn’t take you hours and hours to park every day.”

Sets and props left over from the shoot were donated to organizations such as Film Biz Recycling and Build it Greeen and/or to co-producers and co-financiers Focus and Big Beach; the latter two then made use of the materials in subsequent films that they put into production.

The production’s overall efforts were detailed in a report presented at the December 2008 “Hollywood Goes Green” conference in Los Angeles, entitled Away We Go: A Pilot Study of Sustainable Film Production Practices.

Winkler-Ioffreda states, “The support was overwhelming. People care about the environment, and you feel the importance to do what you can. Hopefully, everyone from this shoot will, on their next jobs, ask for some of the things that we’ve implemented on Away We Go.”

Actor John Krasinski confides, “The incredible part about it is that you realize just how easy it is to do – and how much you are saving.”

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

Film Biz Recycling and the Commodities Market

Film Biz Recycling STILL CAN recycle your electronics, used cell phones, ink cartridges, building materials, set dressing, hardware, doors, props, wardrobe, partial expendables, etc.

HOWEVER,

The economic downward spiral even effects recycling as it is related to the commodities market, the NYT article link below explains. Film Biz Recycling is still new and continues to grow and evolve and this is just part of the process. That said, Film Biz Recycling can NO LONGER accept, cans, bottles, cardboard, or sets.

Please read the Press Release below for information and an alternative and convenient place to send your cans, bottles, sets and cardboard.

In other news, Film Biz Recycling was just awarded its first grant.

Thank you for your continued support of Film Biz Recycling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/business/08recycle.html

Yours in no dumpsters,
Eva Radke
Film Biz Recycling

----------------------

PRESS RELEASE 12.08.2008

As of December 8th, 2008 Film Biz Recycling will not be able to receive sets, cardboard, cans and bottles at the Build it Green location.

This is due to the following:

-The recycling market is enduring a historic economic recession. Paper, metal and plastics prices have plummeted.

-A permit is needed to take in these items in the quantities we are now seeing.

-FBR/BIG does not currently have the facility to take in these materials in the quantities we are now seeing.

-Taking the items directly to Filco reduces the transportation carbon footprint.

However, we would like to introduce FILCO CARTING and MESEROLE STREET RECYCLING as an alternative for your recycling needs. They are a wonderful company that harvests 90% of their materials. They are convenient to the stages and the Mid-Town Tunnel.

Take your cans, bottles, cardboard and sets to:

Meserole Street Recycling
568 Meserole Street (Gardner/Scott)
Brooklyn, NY 11237
www.filcocarting.com

718-456-5000 x526 Jon or x529 Monica

Hours 7am-4pm



Case by case fair market charges for items, your company may set up an account or pay COD.
Call ahead! You may drop by unannounced, but you will have to go the office first at 111 Gardener (across the street)



Items they take:
CLEAR bags of cans and plastic bottles
metal recycling
light demolition (no concrete)
clean wood
general garbage not recyclable
flats (so we stop dumping them illegally)



Items they do NOT take:
heavy demolition
food







Eva Radke
Executive Director
Film Biz Recycling

917-648-5247 cell
718-228-8525 e-fax

www.filmbizrecylcing.org

Film Biz Recycling in an interview with the Regeneration road Trip

These cats set off for 15 cities in 15 days and they found us.

ReGeneration Road Trip: There’s no green business like show business

by Sarah van Schagen, Seattle, Washington / Oct 7

Film Biz Recycling aims to roll credits on the wasteful film industry

When a director yells “cut!” on the set of a TV show, commercial, or feature-length film, the cameras may stop rolling but production is far from over. While editors are looking at raw footage, producers are eyeing premiere numbers, and actors are reading over new scripts, someone else is tearing down the sets and getting props off the lot. But where does this stuff end up? Too often, it’s the landfill, says Eva Radke, founder of Film Biz Recycling.

Once tasked with dumping sets herself, Radke knows the business – and the folks in it – from her years of experience trying to do the right thing without the time or resources. Now she hopes to make a difference when it comes to the egregious waste left after the 200-some films, TV shows, and countless commercials filmed each year in New York City.

Film Biz Recycling serves as a one-stop dumping ground for production companies while turning what would have been landfill waste into much-needed donations or hard-to-find props that can be rented out for reuse in other productions. For example, a collection of tents and cots from the set of a TV special was recently donated to a group of Girl Scouts – providing them with much-needed camping supplies that otherwise might have ended up camped out in a dumpster.

Since starting up in 2007, Radke has already served as a landfill diverter for eight movies, 27 commercials, and a number of other productions. Wandering through the warehouse space she shares with nonprofit Build It Green (which focuses on building materials), it was hard to believe how much treasure she’s saved from the trash bin. There were brand-new couches and antique chandeliers, retro salon hair-dryers and custom-made neon signs, rows of spotlights and stacks of 50-foot garden hoses.

After our tour of the warehouse, Radke even let us watch as she opened a few boxes, delivered fresh from a film set. Here are some highlights from our conversation and our treasure hunt:

video interview

Sarah van Schagen is an Assistant Editor for Grist.org.

• FULL STORY
• TAGS: 2008 eva film biz recycling green grist New York queens radke regeneration road trip sarah van schagen todd dwyer

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recycle your electronics - 10 bucks at Staples

E-waste is the fastest growing part of the waste stream. There are 500 million obsolete computers in the United States alone, notes the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. If electronics are tossed in to a landfill, lead, cadmium, brominated flame retardants, lead oxide, barium, mercury, and plyvinyl chloride can escape into our air, soil and water.

Luckily, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Staples.
(no letters, please, it's just an expression.)

Cut and pasted from the Stapes web-site. I called a random Staples in Manhattan in the 10023 zip code to confirm the the program was up and running. Computer and Technology Recycling Staples makes it easy for customers to recycle e-waste by simply bringing their used computers, monitors, laptops, and desktop printers, faxes and all-in-ones to any U.S. Staples store. All brands are accepted, regardless of whether or not the equipment was purchased at Staples. A recycling fee of $10 per piece of large equipment is charged to cover handling, transport, product disassembly and recycling. Smaller computer peripherals such as keyboards, mice, and speakers are accepted at no charge. Equipment is bagged and sealed when received at the Staples customer service desk. The equipment is then picked up and delivered to our recycling provider Eco International, who uses industry-leading standards for data destruction and disassembles the equipment into its component parts for environmentally responsible recycling. Ink and Toner Cartridges In 2007, Staples recycled nearly 24 million cartridges in the U.S. through our various ink and toner cartridge recycling programs. We offer $3 in Staples Rewards toward a future purchase of ink or toner when HP, Lexmark™ or Dell cartridges are returned to our retail stores for recycling. We also offer our InkDrop® service for our customers. When a cartridge runs out, customers simply drop a new one in the printer and mail us the empty using the prepaid shipping materials. We send a replacement automatically, and all shipping is free. Cell Phones and Rechargeable Batteries We offer free recycling service programs to our retail and contract customers for cellular phones, PDAs, pagers, digital cameras, and chargers through our nonprofit partner Collective Good, who refurbishes products where feasible or recycles them and donates a portion of the proceeds to charity. We also offer free rechargeable battery recycling to retail and contract customers in the U.S. and Canada. This service is offered in partnership with the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation. Internal Recycling Efforts