DVD Recycling: It's Time Has Apparently Come.....
 

From our friends at Video Business:


Companies offer DVD recycling programs
By Buzz McClain February 1, 2008
FEB. 1 | Hundreds of millions, if not billions, of DVDs, CDs and game discs are discarded each year.

Damage and production errors cause some of the problems. But the majority of unwanted discs “come from the retailer shelf,” says David Beschen, founder of GreenDisk, an e-waste recycling company based near Seattle. “Movies tend to have the shortest life cycle,” with the intentional overstocking of titles for “guaranteed to be there” new releases, he says.

Unwanted discs should be separated from regular recyclable plastic products because discs are made of high-grade polycarbonate, says Bruce Bennett, founder of the Compact Disc Recycling Center of America in Salem, N.H. When mixed with other, lesser-grade plastics, they produce an inferior recycled plastic, he says.

Worse is to put the discs out with the rubbish, where they end up in incinerators and landfills. “I defy you to set a disc on fire and then breathe in the fumes,” Bennett says. “You wouldn’t do it. But that’s what you’re doing when they go to an incinerator.”

Bennett’s company, an offshoot of his American Duplication Supply Group, which includes the regional duplication house Superdups, is one of several disc recycling specialists that has sprung up recently. His recycling center has been open since last year’s Earth Day (April 22).

Beschen’s GreenDisk has been in business for 15 years, handling electronic discards for about 10,000 client companies, although its effort to reach out to those in the DVD and CD industries is more recent. GreenDisk has accepted “a single DVD from Disney to 26 train car loads from IBM,” Beschen says. “We handled 60 million discs in one year from AOL.”

GreenDisk provides a collection box called a “technotrashcan” with a custom, refreshable message on it. Store customers and employees fill the bins with discs, Amaray cases and jewel boxes, cardboard slipcases, batteries, PDAs, rechargers and other electronics. The retailer clicks on the GreenDisk Web site (greendisk.com) for pick-up by FedEx or USPS trucks.

“There’s no sorting by staff,” Beschen says. “This is as non-disruptive as humanly possible.” The cost to the retailer “is nothing. Not even postage.” A fee of $45 to $50 a box is taken from unused co-op funds. The retailer receives an audit report to show the expense is qualified for co-op, he says.

If the recycling process targets the end user, the store customer, the program “can support the advertising mission, increase store traffic and extend the reach of recycling past the producers to where the truly big volume of discs are that need to be recycled”: in consumers’ homes, Beschen says.

Similarly, Bennett is on a mission to “promote, educate and collect” from retailers. His Web site, cdrecyclingcenter.org, provides a venue for all three, he says. Retailers can send discs that are separated from their cases and paper sleeves through traditional shipping methods to Salem, or the center will do the separation for pennies per unit. “We’ll take a few discs in an envelope or tons,” he says. Bennett is working to open other collection points around the country.

Once the center collects 40,000 pounds—about 1.3 million discs, they’re sent to China, where both the Recycling Center and GreenDisk send the plastics to be turned into auto parts and building materials.

Green-ness is catching on at all levels of the distribution system. Cinram, for example, helps 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment keep its discs out of landfills with a “state of the art waste stream recycling system,” says Fox senior VP of corporate and marketing communications Steve Feldstein, who also oversees the green initiative at the studio.

“One hundred percent of the cardboard is recycled into new boxes, 100% of the paper inserts are recycled,” he says. “The empty cases, the Amaray, virtually every piece of it, is recycled. Even the skids [palettes]. Nothing gets dumped into a landfill.”

Blasphemy!!

I imagine that is where all the Code Name The Cleaner and Larry the Cable Guy DVDs end up. Next in line for recycling: Meet the Spartans.

:lol:

It's interesting to note that China does not like our exported goods but will willingly take our cast-off DVD waste.

anyone looking to recycle their pesky Blu-ray discs, no need to send to china.. i'll take them

Its

Your right! ;)

Who would have known there were that many copies of Kangaroo Jack around?

Actually, scrap is a major U.S. export right now; China has been cracking down on shady practices, simply because local populace has been complaining and there has been international attention: such as burning wires and other electronics to get at the precious metals inside. This is rampant in India and Africa. It is forbidden in the E.U. to export scrap electronics to these places, but it is done by 3rd and 4th party brokers. It ends up in a heap, where kids burn the plastics and other highly toxic insulate to get at the metals. It's better to just toss this stuff in the landfill. I don't trust these businesses as far as I can throw 'em with one hand.

Check out a recent National Geographic (2 issues ago).

Any PLAYABLE unwanted discs can just be sent to me. For a limited time, I won't even charge a storage fee.

I'm betting a lot of these come from the likes of Hollywood Video, who have to stock hundreds of copies of new releases to remain competitive, and then end up with used DVDs stacked all over the place after the buzz dies down.

Of course, if they would simply sell their used discs at reasonble prices, they wouldn't have to recycle them. Trying to get $15 out of a used DVD 6 months after the release date is just crazy. Then again, they're probably able to write the discs off at that price, so they probably make more money sending them to a landfill than by selling them. Only in America.

lol

Try asking a Blockbuster employee what they do with the discs they don't want anymore. I've seen hundreds thrown in the trash here locally. I wonder why I don;t buy anything from them anymore....hmmmmm...why was that again......

What was the name of the guy who use to get DVDs from the dump bins? Dalvin? Danol?

He better watch his mouth, pretty soon all the cool kids will be huffing DVDs.