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Hollywood Pollutes More than Young Minds

Movie Industry Second Only to Petroleum Plants in Polluting the Air

By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.com

November 14, 2006

• California Finds Air Pollution Claims Lives • Electronic Payment Industry Touts Its Green Benefits • How Green Can Your Drive Get? • 15 States Sue Over Clean Air Decision • Carmakers Want to Exclude Public From Tailpipe Standards Trial • Air Pollution Effects on Health Vary Widely Within Cities • Mercedes-Benz Fined for Clean Air Act Violation • Hollywood Pollutes More than Young Minds • VW Fined $1.1 Million for Clean Air Violations • Does Sprawl Kill?

While some of its movies may be a little suggestive, no one thinks of Hollywood as anything but a "clean" industry. Turns out that belief is as fictional as the latest action-filled thriller.

In fact, a new study finds that the film and television industry and associated activities make a larger contribution to air pollution in the five-county Los Angeles region than almost all five other sectors researched.

Special effects explosions, idling vehicles, teams of workers building monumental sets, all contribute to a surprising amount of air pollution, the two-year study by UCLA found.

Overall, the emissions created directly and indirectly by the film and television industry created more pollution than any of the other major industries studied -- aerospace manufacturing, apparel, hotels and semiconductor manufacturing.

Only the petroleum industry generated higher emissions, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

The picture's not all gloomy, though. The researchers found that some studios have recycling programs and green building practices.

For example, the makers of the film "The Day After Tomorrow," paid $200,000 to plant trees and to take other steps to offset the estimated 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions caused by vehicles, generators and other machinery used in production.

Production teams for "The Matrix Reloaded," and "The Matrix Revolutions," arranged for 97.5 percent of set materials to be recycled, including some 11,000 tons of concrete, steel and lumber; all the steel was recycled, and 37 truckloads of lumber were reused in housing for low-income families in Mexico.

But this may not be what it seems, says Ted Reiff, president of ReUse People of America.

In the case of the Matrix films, Reiff's deconstruction company estimated $450,000 bid to dismantle and reuse the material was cheaper than the demolition contractor's price, he said.

"They're not green at all except when they're forced to be," Reiff said of the film and television industry.

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