Endlings Continued
Shuttle Service/Carpooling:
Being on a rural property in Guelph-Eramosa, with the bulk of the crew coming from Toronto,
it was important to implement a shuttle service to reduce our carbon footprint. Tim Clarke,
the transportation coordinator, organized this. Each day we had 3 shuttles available, leaving at various points in the morning to align with pre-call, crew call and a late call. This was done informally, and crew members could sign up the night before by contacting Tim. Carpooling between departments was also encouraged, and as an incentive to do so drivers of carpooling vehicles had their gas reimbursed.
Recycling:
Admittedly, this was a much more difficult task than initially expected. The EPA assumed that by putting a recycling bin out, people would use it. It wasn’t that simple. To start, there were multiple recycling bins to separate paper, plastics, aluminum and etc. This is the Wellington County requirement to have recycling picked up. There was signage on the bins and posted on the walls to show what belonged where. To put it simply, it was a disaster. It was too complicated for a busy set and took up a lot of room.
The EAP eventually learned, though, that in Wellington County all recyclables actually can be mixed together. This allowed them to simplify to a basic 2 bin system: waste and recycling. The EPA made new signage to show what was recyclable, using items regularly found on set as examples. They thought this would be the end to the recycling troubles but soon found that all items were still being mixed together and the recycling bins were regularly being used for trash. This resulted in the EPA spending hours at the recycling facility, opening each bag and personally pulling out garbage, and feeling very disheartened.
The EPA was starting to think that maybe people just didn’t care. One day, very frustrated, she decided to sort through the recycling at the farm rather than the recycling facility, in a place that everyone could see. This gave the EPA the opportunity to connect with everyone individually as they walked by and asked what she was doing. This created a connection between the crew and EPA, regarding their waste practices.
In particular, it revealed and challenged the common assumption that even on most sets with recycling bins, the contents all just got thrown in the trash as the end of the day.
Once everyone realized things were genuinely being recycled, there was a huge improvement in the crews efforts. On average, the EPA took the recycling to the City of Guelph Waste Resource Innovation Centre every 2 weeks. Each recycling run generally consisted of 3 trips. And from that public sorting day, there was almost no mixed-in garbage to remove from material taken to the recycling facility.