Visit to Film Biz Recycling in Brooklyn

I recently visited Film Biz Recycling's  newest social enterprise, Film Biz Prop Shop in Brooklyn to see their facilities and chat with founder Eva Radke.  I took a bunch of photos from the visit to their wondrous 11,000 square foot boutique of furniture, decorations, and raw material salvaged from film sets. The organization "seeks to take the innumerable reuseable and recyclable items from the completion of Television, Film and Commercial productions to either: 1) recycle them properly, 2) donate to appropriate non-profit agencies and municipal organizations or 3) store and rent in the profitable Film Biz Prop house. Our goal is to set and instill a new and indelible industry standard for all of New York City, the Nation and the World." 

Talking with Eva, my admiration of who she is and what she does grew and grew. Since 2008, she's helped to repurpose 180 tons of material. Over 33 charities have been served. She works with the non-profit CAMBA to serve them up with sheets and towels for women in need. She works with NYC materials exchange giant MFTA (Materials for the Arts) to re-route these materials from the landfill into the hands of teachers, artists, and all kinds of people who can reuse them. Three thousand plastic pit balls went from a film set to a local gym with a kids area (they were delighted!) This work is pumping resources of every kind, including jobs and capital, into the community. 

The film industry is notoriously wasteful. An example that stuck with me - a major motion picture recently shot on Long Island spent $1 million on lumber for the film, all of which was dumpstered at the end. Brand new refrigerators and dryers have the backs cut out of them to fit cameras for commercials, and are then discarded. It was through seeing this sort of waste that motivated Radke to do something. In 2007, she was a new mother, learning all sorts of things about how to care for her new baby through online communities. She saw the tremendous sense of community and potential for sharing information rapidly in online forums, and started a group called Art Cube NYC, a forum where people could locate things they needed for shoots and give extra stuff away. It'd been pretty successful, but still an uphill battle to change the culture. "Before starting Art Cube, no one said "I'd love to keep this out of a dumpster". She cited Paul Hawken as a major source of inspiration for the project:

Maybe the best way to understand the future implications of the movement’s daily actions is to remember Emerson’s moral botany: corn seeds produce corn; justice creates justice; and kindness fosters generosity. How do we sow our seeds when large, well-intentioned institutions and intolerant ideologies that purport to be our salvation cause so much damage? One sure way is through smallness, grace, and locality. Individuals start where they stand and, in Antonio Machado’s poetic dictum, make the road by walking. Thoreau insisted in Civil Disobedience that if only one man withdrew his support from an unjust government, it would begin a cycle that would reverberate and grow. For him there were no inconsequential acts, only consequential inaction: ‘for it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.’ 

I'm so glad her important work is getting the recognition it deserves: The Film Biz Prop Shop made it to NY Magazine's Best of List this year, which "proves the point that what we're throwing away has value, creates jobs, and has beauty", says Radke. Bloggers and designers hone in on the ever-changing variety, which is hand-curated by staff. In addition to the incredibly fun prop shop, Film Biz Recycling also offers green cleanup of storage containers. Post-production, all the stuff that goes into making a film/commerical/tv show usually ends up in a storage unit right after the shoot. Once they know that they don't need the materials anymore, a crew comes and puts the entire contents of the locker into as many dumpsters as it takes. The end? Think again! Using a term referred to as "lateral diversion", the crew at Film Biz Recycling brings in LEED Certified Avid Waste and Filco waste and recycling haulers. They minimize the materials brought to the landfills and incinerators, and maximize the recyclable content. It also made me overjoyed to see that there is a refrigerator and a dryer for rent for anyone who needs them for a shoot. 

The future for Film Biz Recycling? Expansion into a larger space so they can focus on collecting raw material (fabric, lumber, and other materials that can be turned into things), and a staff of 15 who will be working to create furniture from this raw material. It's definitely a dream job for the right person! 

Visit them at 540 President Street in Brooklyn, (347) 384-2336. Website (new site coming soon). Visit them on Facebook and Twitter for the latest and greatest.

Upcoming event: 4/30 Green Jobs Workshop, 6-10pm in Brooklyn. Learn more.