Get the latest gossip

How Hollywood art directors are working to keep their sets out of the landfill

Sets are often discarded after productions, with thousands of tons of materials going into dumpsters each year. Now art directors and their allies are pushing for a more sustainable approach.

“The dumpsters just line up at the end of the show,” said veteran Hollywood art director Karen Steward of many productions she worked on, from the 1988 high school comedy Johnny Be Good, to the 2013 political action thriller Olympus Has Fallen. Steward helped to found the Art Directors Guild’s Green Committee to share best practices and educate others about topics such as reducing waste and sourcing more sustainable set construction materials. According to Earth Angel, an agency that helps productions in the U.S. and around the globe reduce their carbon footprints, the average TV show or movie in 2022 created about 240 tons of waste, with an estimated half of that amount coming from the disposal of props and sets.

Get the Android app