When we watch an animated feature or Saturday morning cartoon, we watch in awe of the art, to escape reality, or to be entertained. If we stop to think about the effort put into the creation of animated pieces, we usually think about the amount of people involved in the production or the amount of hours it took to create. Rarely, is the amount of waste generated over the course of the production considered.

© Canuck Creations.

Legislation
In March of 1994, the Province of Ontario passed Ontario Regulation 347 in the Waste Management Act (the equivalent to an Assembly Bill, such as Assembly Bill 939 for the State of California). This regulation, a guiding device of the act, requires all organizations in the Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional (ICI) sectors to perform a waste audit every five years. In addition, they must possess and follow a waste management plan to reduce wastes. This regulation does not exclude the motion picture industry: live-action or animated. The Ministry of Environment and Energy (MOEE) reserves the right to enter a business and ask for their last audit results, read their management plan, and inspect their property to ensure the plan is being carried out as documented. Penalties for failure to comply with Regulation 347 can be as extensive as jail time and a fine. The goal of this regulation is to have a 50% reduction in waste by the year 2000 and 80% by the year 2003 (MOEE, 1998). The problem lies in that the film industry in Ontario, a growing business for the province, does not understand that this law governs them.

Canuck Creations Incorporated
Animation, a specialized section of the industry, is expanding rapidly. Sheridan Collage, located just outside of Toronto, is one of the largest animation schools in the world. Walt Disney Studios has a large production studio in the Toronto area as well. In addition, there are numerous small production companies in Ontario which collaborate with the major studios to produce some of today's animated features and television. One such company is Canuck Creations located in downtown Toronto. Its President, Alan Kennedy, founded Canuck Creations Incorporated in 1993. Since then, Canuck Creations has been involved in such productions as Space Jam (1996) for Warner Bros., Anastasia (1997) for Fox Animation, and the recently released, Quest for Camelot(1998), again, for Warner Bros. However, the one item that really makes this production company unique is that they possess a waste management plan tailored to their business.

Problems Encountered
Canuck Creations was approached in February of 1997 to participate in a study of animation waste generation. It included participation in a waste audit and the creation of a waste management plan. They were, in fact, the only company out of 48 contacted in North America to agree to the project. For the most part, companies refused to respond to the messages left on their machines regarding the project. However, there were a few interesting excuses used to avoid participation:

• They are not a production company (despite being listed under `Production')
• They only have an office in Toronto.
• They only produce commercials.
• They only produce documentaries.
• They are too busy at the moment to be concerned with this.
• They are not in production at the moment.
• They do not have enough staff to warrant a management plan.
• They are not interested in having a management plan.
• They are too small of a company.
• They are possibly interested and will call back (i.e. don't call us, we'll call you).
• The production assistant just takes the waste to the landfill and dumps it.