Theater, and especially touring theater, can be very wasteful. From the amount of power our shows can pull, the fuel used to transport touring sets and crews, the consumables and so much more.
So what are some things you or your theater do to try and offset this?
Post Merge: Sep 10, 2011, 12:18 pm
Here are some things that I've seen and done in some of the places I've worked.....
Blue Man Group - NYC
Blue Man as a company really cares about environmental issues. The show can be very wasteful in terms of the amount of consumables, so anything the company can do to offset this, it does. Both the NY show and the parent company (and maybe more of the companies, though I've never worked in any of the other cities) have a 'Green Squad' of company members who come up with and institute environmental initiatives.
-Rechargeable batteries for comm: The most recent Audio supervisor (who had previous worked for and done this on Cirque) instituted a rechargeable battery program for all our comm and mics, and it has been very successful. It was only after 3 years that they needed to be replaced (so they more than paid for themselves in terms of both budget and environmental impact), and they worked perfectly the whole time!
-Other battery recycling: They also have a program to recycle other batteries (and encourage all company members to bring in dead batteries from their home). Two companies that I know of who will take your recycled batteries for a fee are the "Big Green Box" and "Complete Recycling Solutions".
-Composting: Blue Man has a LARGE amount of organic waste per show. We used to throw all of it away. But, in 2009, the company allowed us to start a composing program after we did some calculations showing how it wasn't all that much more expensive than paying for regular garbage pickup. All the organic material is put into bins, and then it is picked up every 2 days and composted by an outside company (I can't remember exactly who off the top of my head), so we don't have to deal with worms or anything like that. And, like with the battery recycling, company members are actively encouraged to bring their composting in from home - and many do! (sidenote - this is one of the things that I am super proud of because I had a big hand in convincing our GM to go for this).
-Regular recycling: This one is self explanatory
But company members really do take this one seriously!
-Water bottles: The company provided everyone with reusable water bottles, and fitted the greenroom sink with a water filter, so there are no plastic bottles and no water coolers.
-Florescent bulb recycling
-Clothing recycling: Every 6 months or so, the wardrobe supervisor sets up a scrap clothing recycling drive, where she will recycle old and destroyed costumes, and anything other company members have they are un-donate-able.
Touring
-Battery recycling: Our audio guys tell me that we can't use rechargeable batteries for comm and mics because all the trucking and moving would compromise the batteries (which it might, I have no idea really). But I did convince the company to pay for battery recycling!
-Notification of recycling and bins: In every house we go to, the SM team makes it a point to find out if and what the venue recycles (and sadly, there are a whole lot who don't). Then we post a sign on our callboard giving the company the info and where they can recycle things.
-We use Clark Transfer as our trucking company, and they have a green initiative.
http://clarktransfer.com/green-When we do overnight busing, we set up recycling bins, and then drop off those items in the next venue we play with recycling instead of just tossing them in with the garbage on the bus.
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