Local 80 Waste Sorting Class

On October 16, IATSE Local 80 Green Committee Chair and Eat Healthy Crafty Owner Terri Freedman hosted a waste sorting training at Local 80 open to all IATSE members. For those who missed it, you can watch a shortened video of the class here.

Overall, the presentation covered proper waste sorting when faced with three-stream bins. Terri showed common, crafty-related items and explained why or why not they would be considered recyclable or compostable. Unfortunately, many clean recyclables end up in trash bins on set, and trash ends up in the recycling and compost bins, thus contaminating everything in that bin.

A key takeaway from the course, is that for recycling, we always need to check the recycling logo underneath; the number determines if that item is recyclable in your area. For instance, the city of Burbank only accepts 1 PETE, 2 HDPE, and 5 PP plastics for recycling. Also, do not recycle pieces of plastic that are smaller than the size of a credit card (i.e., loose, plastic bottle caps) because this makes sorting difficult at the recycling centers. Also important to note that plastic bags are never allowed in the green bin or the blue bin.

Remember, the Rule of the 3 R’s has now become the Rule of the 4 R’s:

• Reuse
• Reduce
• Recycle
• REFUSE single-use