At the end of 2016 CLAi were approached by the Monterey Regional Waste Management District to create a short five minute documentary program about the 60 years history of the MRWMD turning waste into resources for the communities they serve.

Of course, our immediate reaction was to ask what a landfill facility in Monterey Bay could have done that was interesting and had value to viewers. Well, it turns out that the District may be a mid-sized, regional facility, but nobody seems to have told them that – and they consistently win national and international awards and recognition for their creative solutions to turning household and industrial waste into valuable resources for their community while helping to cut costs. I was shocked when the guys there started to go through all of the firsts they have, and the impact they have made.

So we took a closer look at the District and suggested making the history documentary, along with a number of 60 second video documentary teasers on many of the District’s operations that together would be used as an interactive journey around the MRWMD. As we got further into what was being done the history video was put to one side for the time being, and we extended the running time of each of the nine individual stories to between three and six minutes to give enough time to both explain the physical aspects of their work and the impact that they have individually and as a group.

These nine documentary pieces are brought together as an interactive experience on their web site, but are also available to view individually. They have also been added to with short versions and teaser videos on different aspects of the MRWMD experience, and other documentary pieces are in the pipeline. Thinking and living green, and enacting reduce, reuse, recycle strategies are just where the MRWMD began… what they are doing today is astounding!