Philadelphia was the first city in the country to enact mandatory curbside recycling, and is now the largest city on the East Coast to have single stream recycling, which mandates that all residents recycle the following:

Recycling these mandated materials will save money by lowering the cost of waste disposal, and is a great first step in lessoning your production’s environmental impact. However, re-envisioning your production’s waste as valuable raw materials, rather than paying to send it to landfill, will also help to offset the costs associated with recycling some of our industry’s more difficult to recycle materials. Incorporating waste reduction techniques into the production’s purchasing decisions and day to day operations will also help to protect not just your production’s bottom line, but our community’s natural resources.

Recycling needs will differ depending on the department, and will need to be enforced on the set, on location, in the catering tents, and in the production office. In order for your recycling efforts to be successful, try to make it just as easy for the crew to recycle as it would be to throw things away:

·          Make sure that any recycling bins, food waste containers, non-recyclable trash cans, etc. are clearly marked, with holes in the lids that are sized to match the material being recycled (i.e. slots for paper, bottle size holes for beverage containers). This will reduce the risk of contamination.

·          Place the recycling bins next to the non-recyclable trash cans in convenient locations in the production office, construction areas, break room, on the set, and on location.