Green Production: Waste Guide for Broadcasters

Tech Report 069

This strategic report concerns sustainable waste management in broadcast production.

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This waste guide for broadcasters is the latest EBU strategic report that aims to provide high level information to better understand waste management strategies, looking at some of the best practice in the industry and where more information and guidance can be sought.

The legal definition of waste varies between nation-states, the EU and the US Environmental Protection Agency. In business terminology, ‘waste’ is often described as ‘not achieving 100% of purchases and investments’. Waste elimination is the process of getting rid of the wastage of energy, water and resources in manufacturing and agriculture.

Waste prevention strives to eliminate future waste and costs by designing objects (and inventing materials and molecules) that can easily be reused, repaired and remanufactured continuously for as long as possible. In a broadcast production context these materials can be readily identified as sets, props and costumes. This report addresses those and many more areas, such as catering and energy-efficient equipment, where significant greening of the broadcast environment is possible.

Sustainable business practices must include the process of removing unneeded inputs in production systems at all stages (end-to-end) for the purpose of maximizing efficiency, reducing resource use, lowering costs and increasing profitability.

Keywords: Zero Waste, Circular Economy, Recycling, Sets, Costumes, Catering, Energy Efficiency.