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News Archives

Broadway Green Alliance Celebrates One Year Anniversary with E-Waste Collection

January 4, 2010 - The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) marked its one year anniversary on December 16 with an industry-wide electronic waste recycling collection. Actors, union members, producers, general managers and theatres from across the Great White Way honored the accomplishments of the first year by coming together to drop off their e-waste and celebrate with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Duffy Square.

“I’m thrilled with the way in which the theatre community has united to make theatre and our community greener,” said David Stone, producer of Wicked and Next to Normal. “We have made great progress this year and built momentum that will lead to even greener theatre in the future.”

The BGA was created in 2008 as an Ad Hoc Committee of the Broadway League and is an industry-wide initiative that seeks to educate, motivate, and inspire the theatre community and its patrons to adopt environmentally friendlier practices in theatrical production and everyday life. Working closely with the NRDC, the BGA identifies and disseminates better practices for theatre professionals and reaches out to theatre fans throughout the country.

In its first year, the BGA has already made great strides toward improving the industry's energy efficiency, strengthening its recycling programs, and cutting its waste.

- Theatres have begun major recycling and energy curtailment programs, as well as switching to more eco-friendly cleaning products and appliances. Over 97% of the marquee and outside lighting of Broadway theatres have been changed to LEDs or CFLs.

- The Broadway community has adopted greener methods of disposing of sets from closing productions. Approximately 84% of scenery from shows that closed during the 2008/2009 season was recycled or reused instead of going to a landfill.

- Backstage, many participating productions now use water filtration systems, turn off and unplug electrical devices, and limit paper and battery usage.

- Touring shows participating in Touring Green have offset over 4,000 tons of carbon emissions from moving their equipment by investing in wind power, methane digesters and other projects through Native Energy.

The e-waste drive in Duffy Square was organized by the BGA to help the community responsibly dispose of their electronics. The theatre community dropped off their personal e-waste for recycling, including cell phones, home phones, desktop computers, printers, laptops/notebooks, LCD and flat panel monitors, CRT based monitors, keyboards, dry cell batteries, PDAs, VCRs, DVDs, computer speakers, computer mice, and video game systems. Original songs and show numbers were performed by Broadway casts, including Finian’s Rainbow, Guys & Dolls, Mamma Mia!, 9 to 5, Phantom of the Opera, Ragtime, South Pacific, The Little Mermaid and Wicked.

Theatre fans can do their part by taking their old electronics to retailers with recycling programs, mailing them back to manufacturers, or organizing a recycling event in their community. Visit nrdc.org/ewaste to find out how.

To learn more about the Broadway Green Alliance, visit www.BroadwayGreen.com.

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