Serving different locations on short notice? Not something any old recycler can do!

Film sets are unpredictable, both in terms of timings and locations… some Quantum Mechanics were required to address the mysterious workings of the creative industry.

We were lucky to get in touch with AdGreen, an advertising industry initiative aiming to improve the sustainability of making TV commercials. They had been looking for a waste company to partner up with for a while, one they could trust with zero to landfill, and one that could work with their fast turnaround jobs.

AdGreen was started by freelance production manager Jo Coombes. Frustrated by what she was seeing on set: masses of waste, catering served up on polystyrene plates, and whole set builds being skipped; it was either do something about it, or try a different career path. Since AdGreen got going, they have been developing tools for production and crew as well as delivering basic green production training and hosting seminars.

AdGreen’s mission is threefold: To educate those in their industry on the issues we face regarding climate change and sustainability, to support production companies in acting more sustainably by developing best practice, and to measure and reduce their carbon footprint in collaboration with brands and agencies, as well as suppliers.

When Jo contacted Quantum Waste, the unpredictability of film work became clear early on in the conversation: different production companies with freelance staff, different location managers working at multiple locations that change on a daily basis, and working with different crews, actors and caterers all the time.

The professional led, Quantum Waste approach provides up to 24hr notice service availability and a simple universal recycling system: ‘food’ and ‘everything else’, making it easy for everyone on set to deal with. Production staff or location managers email info@quantumwaste.com and detail the date, time and indicative content of the required collection. That email is often followed by a photo a few hours before collection of exactly where we can find the waste!

Once the job is completed we send an invoice for the work done… and that’s it! No fuss, no contracts, no prepayments and, importantly, full recycling – integral to AdGreen’s ethos.

We recommend you to visit AdGreen’s website (http://www.adgreen-apa.net/). Not only it is quite entertaining – as you would expect from skilled creative teams – it also has lots of resources to help make your film shoots more sustainable. We love their horror stories section – take a look … http://www.adgreen-apa.net/social-contact