Some habits are hard to break, but every once in a while that can be a good thing.

Skaneateles native Jodi Baldwin has brought her habit of recycling to the next level in her professional life as costume designer in the movie industry.

In December 2007, Baldwin incorporated the Film and Entertainment Recycling Initiative, also known as FaERI, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging recycling on film locations and movie sets.

‘I've recycled all my life,” Baldwin said. “It is just something I do, like eating and laundry, so the fact that green is trendy now is really bizarre.

“The fact that there isn't recycling everywhere bothers me: at malls, on streets where there are trash cans, at restaurants, etc. etc. So work was no exception.”

While the 1997 Skaneateles graduate had an interest in sports during high school, she found time for drama club and the arts by her junior year. That led her into her career as a costume designer.

She studied textiles, merchandising and design, while minoring in theater costume design for the University of Rhode Island.

“I wanted to work with costumes in film since I was 14, and so I specifically pursued that career,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin has gone on to work as a customer, set costumer and seamstress on a number of films and television projects, including “27 Dresses,” “Empire Falls” and “Underdog.”

She wears a lot of hats on the set during her 12- to 14-hour days. She makes sure the actors are dressed in the correct wardrobe for the scenes. Also, she has to handle changes or emergencies, including alterations. Occasionally, Baldwin has to build clothing from scratch.

But it was on the set of “Underdog” in spring 2006 that she added another task - the set recycler.

Baldwin placed recycle bins around the set, and arrived early and stayed later to bag things and remove them.

“It was during this time that I realized how much really could be recycled and that it should be a full-time position,” Baldwin said. “From that point on, I was brainstorming ideas until this past fall when I had some time off work to really make it a concrete reality.”

The crew seemed to know her more as the recycling girl who picks up plastic than as the costumer, Baldwin joked. However, her efforts have picked up steam with FaERI's incorporation. More of her co-workers and people on the set becoming aware of what she was trying to accomplish, aside from her costume designs.

“Everyone loves it and is very excited. Most crew members recycle at home and so are thrilled to have this in place while we are at work,” Baldwin said. “They kept coming to me asking questions, ‘What can be recycled?,' ‘What can't?,' ‘Can this?,' ‘Can that?' ... The support I've received has been wonderful.”

Baldwin gears her efforts toward the same things most people recycle at home, from bottles to tin cans. On a movie set, the amount of cast and crew means there is simply more.

Other items the entertainment industry uses in bulk are recyclable, such as lights, batteries, paint, detergent containers from the costume department and even props like dummy bullet shells.

So far recent projects such as “The Lonely Maiden,” “The Box and Hachiko,” and “The Clique” have included recycling on their sets.

Baldwin hopes FaERI will be an industry-wide institution on movie sets. This would keep hundreds of thousands of pounds of materials out of landfills, and save natural resources such as trees and oil, she said.

“The film industry is one of the top polluting businesses so recycling is a major way to help improve this rating,” Baldwin said. “Recycling is an incredibly easy way to be environmentally responsible; there is no reason why our industry, with its resources and financial strength, can not embrace it.”

For more information on FaERI visit www.faeri.org.