Reduce Food Waste

How to Get Started

Most food waste from sets ends up in landfills. Landfills are emitters of greenhouse gases, specifically methane, which is at least 28 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a 100-year period. According to the US EPA, Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States; of that, food waste alone contributes to 58% of methane emissions from municipal solid waste landfills.

Diverting waste from landfills by donating it or composting it creates a closed loop.

• Start in prep: Add food donation and composting to your prep checklist. Look at the end of the day first, then work backwards: where will leftovers go, and who will haul the scraps? 
• Ask your caterer early whether they have a donation plan. If not, bring in a food recovery organization or set up your own.
• Assign roles. Decide who is responsible for food donation and who ensures organics composting actually happens, not just that the bins are there. 
• Tell the crew at the safety meeting. For example: “We’re donating all of our leftovers.” Frame it as a team effort. 
• Assign sustainability focused roles. On smaller productions without a sustainability coordinator, consider an Eco PA/Rep for a first coordinator role.

Food Donations

Extra food from meal periods is often inevitable, but that food ending up in a landfill isn’t. Donating leftover meals is a simple and impactful way to make sure food isn’t wasted.

Liability Protection

• The federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act (1996) protects people and companies who donate food in good faith from liability.
• California productions are also covered by the California Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. Check the rules in other states with a quick search. 
• Food recovery organizations typically have donation agreements that shift liability to them once they accept the food. If a caterer is hesitant, have production email them a liability release. 
• A food handler certification for whoever packs donations reassures both donors and recipients. In California, a ServSafe food handler course takes about two hours and costs less than $20.

Where to Donate

• Food recovery organizations like Every Day Action are available for on-site pickup. They need 24 hours’ notice and a spot on your distro list so they can plan around your call sheet. 
• Food banks, churches, community fridges, and fire departments are accessible options for local donations. 
• LA Community Fridges take boxed meals and unopened items, not catering trays. Hours vary by fridge; check the map on their website. 
• The location itself. Ask the facility rep whether their staff would want leftovers. 
• Bridge and low-income housing with communal kitchens, and neighborhood Buy Nothing groups. 
• Late wraps and second meals: hospital emergency rooms (via security) and fire stations are staffed 24/7. If you might go late, tell your recovery partner in advance and store food in the catering or crafty truck, a production fridge, or a commissary for a morning pickup.

Storing and Packing Food

• Coordinate with your catering company to have aluminum trays ready for storing, transport, and donations. Budget for extra trays with lids or foil; recovery nonprofits can’t always supply them. 
• When possible, plan with your location manager to determine the best on-site location for storing food before donations. A dedicated donation fridge, space in the main fridge, or a cooler packed with ice all work.
• Stock gallon airlock bags, aluminum foil, gloves, and a Sharpie for labeling and dating each container.
• Keep food cold and covered. If the chef wouldn’t keep serving it to the crew (ex. A salad bar in the sun), compost it instead.
• Post or send photos when offering food so recipients can judge the quantity and type (salad, meat dish, snacks) and whether they have room.
• “Best by” dates indicate quality, not safety, per the USDA. Donate past-date snacks with the date clearly noted.
• Loop in the art department early. Food stylists often have surplus perishable food and nonperishables.

On-Set Composting

Compost at Catering

Communication with your catering vendor is vital to ensure that food waste is properly diverted from landfills. Oftentimes, catering companies will use a trash can to dispose of food scraps from the prep and cooking process (fruit skins, peels, etc). These scraps can be composted, so long as the bin isn’t contaminated with plastics and other non-organic waste. 

Coordinate with your catering vendor and waste hauler on liners for organic waste. Many haulers need clear bags so they can confirm bags hold food scraps, not trash.

Compost at Waste Stations

Around your location, it’s common to have waste stations. These are often unmarked trash bins at strategic locations like video village, crafts service, and around other high traffic areas on set. While that system works well to keep trash off of the ground, it ensures that everything will end up in a landfill. 

A complete waste station includes bins for landfill, recycling, compost, speciality recycling, and liquid buckets (for crew to pour their drinks into before sorting their waste).

• Put green bins at catering and crafty first. They’re the highest-traffic spots for food scraps.
• Color-code liners: clear/green for compost, blue/white for recycling, and black for trash/landfill. Never one color for all three streams. 
• Keep signage simple, with icons. For the green bin: “Food scraps. No plastic.” 
• Remind crew to tap food containers into the compost before recycling them. Plastic utensils and deli-container lids aren’t recyclable.

Municipal Waste Services

While scouting for locations, prioritize locations that have organic compost bins on site. This will make proper disposal of sorted waste seamless. Many locations in cities like Los Angeles and New York are now required by city ordinances to have organic waste sorting. In California, SB 1383 requires commercial organics collection and also requires certain food businesses to donate edible surplus food. 

If you’re on a location without compost collection, coordinate with vendors like Reel Waste to have an organic dumpster delivered and picked up on site.

Crafts Service

A set’s crafts service area can generate a large amount of waste, both organic and plastic. Coordinate with your crafts service personnel to ensure that a proper waste station is nearby. 

Additionally, ask crafts service about alternatives to plastic-wrapped snacks. For plastic wrapped snacks, specialty wrapper recycling is available from organizations like TerraCycle. 

• Serve condiments in bulk: sugar in jars, squeeze bottles, full-size creamers instead of single-serve packets and cups.
• Choose compostable or reusable serveware, like bamboo or sugarcane, and uncoated paper food boats.
• Replace single-use water bottles with refill stations and reusable bottles. Keep aluminum canned water as a backup. 
• Skip bundled utensil packs. California restricts bundling single-use utensils, and cities like Burbank and Glendale ban polystyrene foodware. 
• Offer dairy-free creamer as a lower-carbon swap.
• Collect soft plastic film from beverage cases for grocery store drop off bins, where available.
• Offer any bags of empty bottles and cans to security or location staff to redeem for deposits.

Meals

Low-footprint Meals

According to Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, livestock production accounts for 14-18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, including 32 percent of methane gas emissions worldwide. 

Your set doesn’t have to be meatless overnight, but replacing beef with chicken or plant-based proteins can significantly reduce your project’s footprint. Consider a “Meatless Monday” to introduce your crew to the concept, and consider a catering company that specializes in vegetarian or vegan meals for delicious options.  

Right-sizing Crew Meals

Ensuring that you have enough food to feed your crew is vital. However, it’s common for sets to over-order food, leading to excess waste and money spent. Keep track of what your crew is consuming and keep communication constant to ensure that your crew has what they need, without an overabundance.

• Confirm headcounts daily. Account for guardians and minors, entourages, and background changes. A short count can trigger a panicked over-order the next day. 
• Calibrate, don’t eliminate. Keep morning and afternoon passes, but scale them to what people actually eat.
• Ask what a food request is for. A pass for the client may need three portions, not trays for 150. Passes meant for crew should go where crew are posted. 
• Stay through wrap. See how much catering and crafty food goes unused on a typical day.

Who To Talk To

Learn how to talk with cast and crew about a plan for reducing food waste from pre-production onward. 

• Caterer and Crafts Service
• Production coordinator (waste hauler and on-site storage) 
• 1st AD (headcounts, second meal, late wraps)
• Art department and food stylist
• Food recovery partner

Quick Math – Budgeting and Building the Business Case 

Business Case: Hauling Costs

Food is heavy, and many haulers charge by weight. Every tray donated is a tray you don’t pay to haul. One recovery partner saved a production one to two dumpster pickups over a season.

Business Case: Donations

Donation costs little to nothing; the food is already paid for. Recovery services cost far less than most catering line items. Every Day Action, for example, asks for a donation of about $50 per day.

Business Case: Right-Sizing

On one production, only half of a 150-person afternoon pass was needed, a direct hit to the budget. Ordering to actual consumption saves money every day. 

Business Case: ESG Reporting and Publicity

Track food donations in pounds or meals served alongside fuel metrics. It’s a community story your production and studio can share.