‘Horrendous Carbon & Waste Footprint’: Amazon’s Rings of Power Criticized For State of Set
Lion Rock at Piha in New Zealand on October 18, 2011.
New Zealand’s mountain ranges and rivers provided a seemingly perfect setting for Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, filmed in 1999-2000. For its prequel, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, set before the events described in JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the show returned to New Zealand.What originally seemed like a great tourism ad for New Zealand turned out to have a dark side, churning out waste and producing a debilitating environmental impact, according to media reports.Major filming productions, such as Amazon’s prequel, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, have raised concerns in New Zealand regarding their waste and carbon footprint.© AP Photo / Carey J. WilliamsThis April 12, 2014 photo shows the iconic Mitre Peak in the Fiordland National Park in Milford Sound, New Zealand.
This April 12, 2014 photo shows the iconic Mitre Peak in the Fiordland National Park in Milford Sound, New Zealand.New Zealand’s pristine natural beauty, with its mountain ranges, rivers and fields, has been touted in tourism campaigns over the past decade. But it was the fact that these environments formed the backdrop for onscreen adaptations of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, including Amazon’s latest prequel, The Rings of Power, that gave tourism to the country a real boost. However, all this comes at a huge cost for the environment, workers involved in major film productions on the South Pacific Ocean nation tell media.Furthermore, New Zealand’s government turned a blind eye to the emissions and waste concerns and could do more to regulate the environmental impact of film productions, according to on-set photographs, internal communications, and interviews with production workers.
It’s appalling what’s happening, and most people don’t know about it… If people knew how destructive the whole business is, they would think twice,” one set worker on Rings of Power reportedly told outlets.
Another added:
“If huge corporations want to come to this country and use the beauty that’s here, [there’s a duty] to preserve the beauty. They’re getting tax cuts, and then we’re left with all their trash. It’s heart-breaking. I feel like New Zealanders are being completely taken advantage of.”
“The environmental impact of this industry, and of this show, is enormous,” a memo to staff was cited as saying, adding that “every single person we spoke to is concerned about the environmental impact.”
Viral’Looks Like Utter Cr*p’: Netizens Livid at Amazon’s Prequel to Lord of the Rings14 February, 14:27 GMTFilming for the eight-episode first season took place in New Zealand from February 2020 to August 2021. By July 2021, according to leaked internal communications from The Rings of Power’s sustainability team, roughly 14,387 tonnes of carbon dioxide had been generated. Waste disposal practices on New Zealand’s filming sets were slammed as “insane”, “horrendous”, “sad” and “embarrassing” by the interviewed staff. In the wake of filming, one cited vendor reported collecting 11,433 cubic metres of landfill waste, and another gathered 30.5 cubic metres of soft plastic and 1,885 cubic metres of landfill waste.Throughout filming, several initiatives were set in place to try to mitigate the impact, such as recycling paper waste and batteries, using an electric vehicle charging station, re-usable water bottles, and engaging with local disposal companies to compost or recycle waste. The multi-series show announced in August 2022 that Season Two will be filmed in the UK “as part of a strategy by the studio to expand its production space and consolidate its footprint in the UK”.In response to the environmental impact claims, Amazon was cited as insisting that it complied with all laws and “either met or exceeded industry standards”.
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