Real Talk
Ok real talk!
Two years back in March of 2018, we were hired to make a few films for a new client. They were our biggest client at that time and the crew was sizeable, 4 times our usual.
With a huge crew, the amount of waste created is also huge. At a pre-production meeting, one of us suggested assigning everyone water bottles and refilling & reusing it. However, this small suggestion was met with resistance. This is when being eco-friendly wasn't cool yet. "Foreigners won't drink anything but packaged water." , "We would need to hire people dedicated to filling the bottles.", "what if someone drinks from my bottle, how can I trust the person who is filling the bottles." "This is not important." "It is too much work since we would be shooting on location" "It would be difficult to cool the water." These were a few reasons cited.
Some people suggested we try it out when shooting with smaller crews. A year before the entire crew of Spiderman Homecoming had reused their water-bottles. If such a huge crew could do it, so could we. A few people were with this idea and we eventually went for it.
We had to buy bottles in bulk. Each team member, from the Director to the drivers had to be assigned one. We did hire one extra person to take care of the water, but apart from that everything else was the same. A 20 litre barrel of water was mounted on the tap. An extra 20 litre barrel was stored in the ice box, at the back of the van. All the bottles were labeled the night before and filled up with water and thrown together in another icebox.
What we secretly thought would be a nightmare to manage became second nature in two days. The international crew were happy to drink from their own bottles. No bottles were mixed up. Everyone took their bottles home at night. They would bring it back in the morning to be filled and stored in the ice box. It went smoother than we imagined. Slowly the bottles started to make their way from the ice box to different parts of the set. Seamlessly blending in with everything, unlike the small plastic water bottles that stand out like an eyesore.
It has been like that ever since those two weeks in 2018. Right before every shoot, we ask the crew to bring their own water bottles(or provide them with reusable bottles if they don't have one) and give them the option of refilling it. We help each other out in carrying or storing it. Sometimes, in remote locations it is a little difficult but if planned ahead even in places like Ladakh or distant villages, we always have enough water in our cars.
And this has to be said, nobody has ever fallen sick after drinking this water. Indian or international crew. Thankfully nobody has complained or asked for small packaged water bottles also.
We slowly moved on to many more compostable and reusable elements since then. Rechargeable batteries, biodegradable plates, healthier diet at shoots, dustbins in the cars; all of this was slowly incorporated in our inventory. Frankly, very few crew members eat packaged potato chips when hungry. For munchies between meals, we switched it up with locally made snacks like 'murukku' and 'namkeen' in the plains and locally bought mixed nuts in the mountains.
We are thankful to our entire crew who supported us in every little change we made. These little changes sound like trouble in our head but so easy to execute.
