Film Biz Recycling: Every Item Counts

Thanks to a Brooklyn business, props from movie sets, commercial shoots, TV scenes and theatre productions in New York City are now being collected and given new homes.

Film Biz Recycling hates to watch props and costumes go to waste, and so gathers all the goods in a Gowanus warehouse for distribution. Most of the items are given to non-profit organizations in the area, while others are donated to small local businesses in need of a hand. Whatever’s left is sent to a unique thrift shop filled with all sorts of riches.

Every Object Has Value

The business was established by Eva Radke of Park Slope, who thought of the idea after working in the entertainment industry. “Every single object in the world has a value. If it doesn’t have a value to you, it does to someone else” she said.

Donations from TV shows like Rescue Me and Law and Order are gathered with others from numerous Broadway shows, and are then distributed based on who will benefit the most. For example, 30 aquariums were given to the Sean Casey Animal Center in Windsor Terrace, while a crib went to a baby-shelter called Room to Grow and dozens of lamps to a women’s shelter.

“It’s bringing something beautiful- something that’s been curated by an artistic director or creative eye- and handing it to a family, a home that needs it” Radke said. “It’s building up lives.”

Other items are fixed or changed into unique creations in the business’s workshop. Hundreds of books from Warner Bros. were turned into a couch, and dozens of other inventions have already been sent out to new homes as well.

“This feels like an orphanage to me” Radke said. “It’s more than just stuff. It’s our attitude towards stuff, and none of it needs to be wasted.”