'It's heartbreaking' Is monster-budget Rings of Power costing the Earth?

Picture three scenes: in one, trees stretch skyward, trunks pale against the dark soil, leaves dappling the ground like golden P coins. In another, a maelstrom of white flakes is carried in eddies by the wind. In a third, sheer cliffs are slick with snow, icicles hanging like shards of glass.

- Tess McClure

All three have formed the visual signature for screen adaptations of The Lord of the Rings, including Amazon's latest, monster-budget offering, The Rings of Power. And that association has helped form the bedrock of a decade of New Zealand's tourism industry.

But there is a catch. The trees are not part of New Zealand's 9m hectares of native forest - they are carved polystyrene. The thousands of scattered leaves are woven polyester. The soil is a mess of plastic and bark chips. The white flakes are shaved polystyrene. And the "cliffs" are eventually crushed into fragments and taken to landfill: one of a multitude of set pieces trashed and dumped in the wake of major film productions.

Workers involved in The Rings of Power, as well as other international studio productions in New Zealand, say that behind the glamour and cashflow lie serious concerns about the environmental impact, partly underwritten by New Zealand's government. The true size of that cost is typically hidden from the public by studio walls, and because some crew members are afraid to speak out as they risk being blacklisted.

The Guardian reviewed on-set photographs and internal communications, and interviewed six production workers on condition of anonymity, including four who worked on The Rings of Power. Those interviewed said they believed the industry could, and should do better - and the New Zealand government could be doing more to regulate the environmental impact of film productions.