EcoHearth: Come Home to the Earth

I'm living the waste-free lifestyle at home. Over time I have reduced my desire for new products, refined my recycling methods, transitioned to human-powered or solar-powered appliances, and experimented with alternative automobile fuels and non-auto transportation. Life is so much simpler now that those systems have become second nature. And there is something deeply satisfying knowing that my two-person household tosses only five gallons of actual garbage per month into a landfill.

When I was on tour in STOMP for years, my waste creation was even less.  Mostly because waste-free living doesn't happen at the trash or recycling bin, it happens at the checkout counter. On tour, you only have a suitcase for years of storage, and the accumulation of stuff you have to lug around is low priority. You say 'no' to purchases all the time, and that 'no' at the checkout counter is ultimately what makes the biggest difference in final waste output.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, the longer people take care of themselves through waste-free living or the raw vegan diet, the more energy they have available for taking care of a world outside of their personal green safety zone.

On tour with STOMP, eventually I was satisfied with my personal consumption patterns, but lo and behold, my performance every night, breaking broomsticks, trashing metal garbage cans, ripping apart newspapers—all in the name of music!—was overwhelmingly wasteful. I asked the stage manager what our company did in each city with that waste and he disclosed that we recycled all the metal garbage cans and 'if there were available facilities' (a rarity) we recycled the newspaper and drinking water bottles, too. The broken brooms got tossed.

And then I went deeper: what about these massive theatrical lights raging all day for load-in and during the performance? What about the cross-continent flights our entire cast and crew were jumping on every other week? Were they 'worth it' just because we were making art? I didn't consider a tea at Starbucks worth the paper cup. I do really value art and entertainment as more vital to community enrichment than drinking another chai latte, but where does one draw the line?  And being just one person, how effective could I be at greening my entire workplace anyway?

The more people involved in a system, the longer it takes to change. We know on a personal level how difficult it is to remember to place those reusable grocery bags back in our cars after we've unpacked them in the kitchen. It takes a few weeks to make it a habit. The change, I admit, is awkward. But I am a human, one of a species with massive self-awareness and the ability to build skyscrapers, cure infections and design a better iPhone. Remembering the reusable grocery bags really isn't such a big deal when you think about it that way.

So here I am in Los Angeles, in an awkward career transition myself, from live stage performance (touring, concert dance, theatre) to film and television. And, oh, my aching green heart! Film and television's bigger budgets beget bigger waste! It's almost enough to make an environmental pioneer throw in the towel— watching entire dumpsters get filled with unopened boxes of donuts and half-drunk water bottles at a production wrap. And watching entire carpets, tarps or living plants get tossed because they can't be stored immediately or used in the next shot.

The machine is massive in Hollywood and, because there are so many people working on the production line, it will take a long time to change. But as soon as one person in the production office, one actor on set, or one prop master speaks up, then the change begins. And it has begun, thanks to individuals effectively changing their personal lives and finding they have the energy to be available for caring for the world outside their personal green safety zone.

Last week, Jack Dagger and I performed our knife-throwing duet on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.  Before leaving set, I thanked the talent executive, JP Buck, for not offering individual plastic bottled water. He knew exactly what I was talking about and we discussed the Tonight Show's green initiatives out loud in front of all the guests and production crew. JP said that they offered water in the five-gallon dispensers and people working on the show refilled their bottles. In a machine as big as the Tonight Show at Universal Studios, people drink a lot of water, so this initiative really does have an environmental impact.

He then offered that the production office recycles paper. And believe me, there is a lot of paperwork in a production office. It really does matter. I thanked him out loud for being part of a company that has adopted these green efforts on set, and for being educated and able to discuss them.

In the future, I hope to see the costume department incorporate soap nuts for their laundering. I hope to see the hair department using cruelty-free, biodegradable hairsprays and gels. And I hope that the production assistants serve coffee pre-brewed in air pots rather than those single-serving, peel-away containers. In any case, in the green community, it is important to recognize the efforts companies are making and say it out loud.

When I see the infrastructure of the television and film industry incorporating environmental practices, I know it is only a matter of time before that translates to every person in the workplace and every viewer in the world. I'm placing my bet on the entertainment industry being a key player in the popularization of the green movement. And I am happy to say I am one of the people who has taken responsibility for my personal actions—joyously, patiently and with positivity—in helping to change my workplace.

[See a complete list of writing by Tonya Kay on EcoHearth.com or visit her Clean and Green Everyday blog. – Ed.]

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