Own A Piece Of Cinematic History While Helping Save The Environment
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Own a piece of movie history and help save the environment-- it's a deal almost anyone would sign up for.
It's also a business model for an unusual establishment in Gowanus, Brooklyn.
As CBS 2's Scott Rapoport reported, it is an 11,000 square-foot warehouse filled with costumes, props and furniture from movie and TV show sets of days gone by.
Vintage walkie-talkies, faux dynamite and evidence from your favorite crime film is all for sale or rent.
"We get everything," Film Biz Recycling Eva Radke said.
But at Film Biz Recycling, at 540 President Street, money is not the motivation. The company is a nonprofit organization and for every fake ATM and dining room table that it sells, Radke figures that's another couple of items that won't end up in a dumpster or dumped in a landfill.
"In the bad old days, the industry used to put all this stuff into a dumpster and throw it away when they were done with it. We have put an end to that. We've given it a home," Radke said.
That's the mission: the company is determined that no materials go to waste.
All of the items at the warehouse have been donated by show biz studios as opposed to being tossed in the trash.
Since 2008, Film Biz Recycling says it has kept more than 500 tons of materials out of the New York City waste system.
"I do this because I feel like this industry is wonderful and that we can do better," Radke said.
All merchandise is marked down at least 50 percent from its original retail value, CBS 2 reported.
The company says 60 percent of the items it takes in are donated to charity.
It's a win-win for customers who get to walk away with a piece of show-biz history.
"It's exciting to come here and find almost anything you want," customer Paul Perez said.
It's a tale of waste not, want not where the goal is a happy ending for the environment.
Radke says her company is forbidden by the studios to say which items appeared in which specific films.
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