By Zena Harris, Founder & President, Green Spark Group

In the entertainment industry, waste sticks out like a sore thumb. From productions to live events, everyone agrees that waste diversion matters, but how it's measured, reported, and even defined is often anything but consistent. At Green Spark Group, we’ve seen it all. And we’re here to say: it’s time to bring clarity and integrity to the chaos.

A Messy Landscape

One of the biggest challenges we face in our work is the striking inconsistency in waste practices across productions. Expectations vary wildly from client to client. Some prioritize high diversion rates but don’t establish clear procurement standards. Others accept whatever data is handed to them through invoices, lacking the time or capacity to question its accuracy or source. The result? A fragmented picture of success that undermines meaningful sustainability progress.

Haulers and vendors are equally inconsistent. Some are meticulous, offering transparent, traceable data and supporting true circular outcomes. Others? Not so much. We've encountered scenarios where different clients receive different answers from the same vendor, or where a certain type of compostable cup is accepted one week and rejected the next. In some cases, vendors report diversion data based solely on onsite bag counts, ignoring what happens after those bags leave the lot, sometimes all ending up in a single landfill location despite best efforts.

This is the Wild West of Waste.

What Are We Really Measuring?

It’s important to remember: waste is an output, a result of decisions made upstream. Choices about what to purchase, how to design workflows, and what resources are prioritized all shape what ends up in the bin.

At Green Spark Group, especially in our work on film and TV productions, we frame waste within a systems perspective. We look at what comes into the production, how it's used, how materials move between departments, and what happens to them after wrap. We track inputs and outputs with rigor, always asking: What’s real? What’s replicable? What’s fair to claim?

The Hidden Effort Behind That One Diversion Number

On the surface, calculating a landfill diversion rate might seem simple. But the path to a quality, trustworthy number is anything but.

As a refresher, the waste diversion formula is:

Weight of Diverted Waste: This includes materials that are reused, recycled, composted, or recovered for beneficial use. The Zero Waste International Alliance definition of zero waste excludes disposal in landfills or incinerators.

Weight of Total Waste: This is the sum of all waste generated. It includes the weight of diverted waste plus the weight of any materials that are sent to a landfill or incinerator. (Zero Waste International Alliance, https://zwia.org/)

That’s right, burning or incinerating waste doesn't count toward a zero waste program.

Behind the scenes, real effort must go into:

Selecting sustainable and compatible materials from the start
Creating opportunities for reuse and redistribution
Coordinating across departments to capture opportunities for material separation
Reaching out (again and again) to vendors to clarify practices. One film production may have upwards of 5 or 6 different waste vendors that manage waste from different departments or areas.
Verifying data sources and tracing materials to their final destinations.
Organizing complex waste data to ensure consistent units and conversions and that it’s report-ready and aligned with broader impact goals.

That final figure in your sustainability report represents hundreds of micro-decisions, hours of work, and constant collaboration. It’s not just a number. It’s a story.

Toward Solutions: What We Recommend

To help bring order to the chaos, we suggest a few guiding principles for anyone looking to improve how they manage and report on waste:

1. Prioritize Procurement

Choose materials and products that are reusable, recyclable, or compostable, and accepted by your local vendors. Don't wait until disposal to think about sustainability.

2. Prioritize Reuse

Set up internal systems and creative opportunities for materials to be repurposed during and after your project. The best waste is the waste never generated.

3. Empower Frontline Decision-Makers

Those sorting materials, making purchasing calls, or coordinating departments should be trusted to make sustainability-aligned decisions. Give them the training, support, and agency they need.

4. Seek Out Quality Data

Ask the right questions. Where did this go? Who took it? What actually happened to it? Use appreciative inquiry to engage your vendors and staff in improving processes. Don’t accept that “it will all just end up in the same place anyway.”

5. Standardize Practices

Adopt consistent methods across projects, especially on projects filmed in the same region. Better yet, collaborate with other stakeholders in your industry to create shared standards. Fragmentation helps no one.

At Green Spark Group, we’re committed to moving the entertainment and events industry beyond the status quo. We offer more than checkbox solutions, we dig deep to build systems of integrity, traceability, and long-term impact.

Waste may still feel a bit like the Wild West, but with a little structure, a lot of collaboration, and a focus on quality data, we can tame it, one project at a time.

The Wild West of Waste: Why Consistency and Context Matter