During the next several weeks - leading up to the 40 Under 40 Awards - The TIMES and Ridge Meadows Recycling Society are highlighting community members - 40 and older - who have through the years made a difference in the local recycling, environmental, and sustainability movement and who serve as an inspiration to future generations.

Everything gets recycled in the theatre world.

Luckily. Because Sharon Malone, president of the Emerald Pig Theatrical Society, would have it no other way.

This year when Emerald Pig put on Love's Labour's Lost, they used a grandfather clock from a play 10 years ago and transformed it into a lectern.

"It's lovely to repurpose things like that," Malone said. "It's a feeling of creativity and accomplishment when you can reuse things."

This year's production included an airship, constructed in part from the flooring used in a previous year's production of Anne of Green Gables, and a blimp - with leaks that needed to be patched - which belonged to a union where a member of the theatrical society worked.

Malone believes in thinking globally but acting locally.

"I've always been very environmentally oriented in terms of my values, my politics, my principles," Malone said, something that she's tried to integrate into how Emerald Pig runs their shows.

Costumes and props get regularly recycled and repurposed, showing up in new incarnations in different productions.

She would like people to be conscious of environmental issues on a daily basis, saying there's no magic solution to fixing the environment but rather as a society, collectively, how people choose to live their lives will make a difference.

"You can't change the world but you can change your little corner of the world," Malone said.

The elaborate set pieces from their productions can present an environmental challenge after the takedown of a show.

For example, the airship from this summer's Bard on the Bandstand production Love's Labour's Lost is no small prop, and Malone said it might just turn up as a float at the next Santa Claus parade.

mrantanen@mrtimes.com