Commander Dan

I know I'll be tossing mine right in the trash (...and no, I'm not kidding) while replacing them with regular keepcases and custom/alternative cover art.

darkside

I may not redo the cover art, but all of these crap cases can go right into the landfill as far as I'm concerned. I have a decent stock of replacement cases so I should be ok for awhile.

fumanstan

I just got another one with Never Say Never Again, so that's 3 of them I have now. It doesn't bother me enough to specifically replace them, but if I bought a pack of replacement cases and had extras then I might.

Darknite39

I'm no hippy, and I hate to go off-topic for a few more posts, but is it really that hard to toss them in a recycling bin? (Not trying to stir up trouble, but behavior like this is interesting. I can see people saying Fuck You to SONY--I mean, come on, it's SONY, but why the middle finger toward planet Earth?)

Gizmo

Nahh, I'm gonna bury these directly in the ground.

Darknite39

Bypass the middle man?

fumanstan

Yeah, it's kind of silly to me. Purposely not recycling these or whatever isn't going to do anything to change the use of them.

Commander Dan

Awesome!

darkside

I'm not a big recycling believer personally. If recycling plastic, paper, etc was really needed it would be cost effective to do it. Instead it ends up being a big waste of tax dollars. I'm not buying the "we are running out of landfill space argument either". There is plenty of evidence that that is untrue. I currently recycle aluminum because there is an actual market for it. Everything else goes in the trash. I don't toss my normal DVD packaging and will probably hold on to those things for most of my lifetime. This green packaging just ends up forcing me to throw away something I would normally keep.

joliom

Exactly. Go green with packaging we actually intend to throw away, not shit we plan to hang on to. What's next, are we going to start making clothes with patches cut out to save on material (now with 30% less fabric!). This is one of those stupid initiatives that sounds nice in theory, but ends up doing more harm than good. Now collectors like us will all just buy the shit out of proper replacement cases - thus creating the need for two packages where there otherwise would have been one - and the average schmoes will just start throwing out tons of these cheap ass cases when they fall apart. This is all about these companies saving on material and shipping costs and has nothing whatsoever to do with a genuine interest in helping the environment. If they really cared about that then they'd build things to last so we wouldn't have to constantly replace everything every few years as part of this disposable culture model they've worked so hard to create.

clappj

I think this looks like a great idea!

slop101

Yeah, lame - it's not like these are disposable items that people throw away like newspapers and regular packaging. People keep these on their shelves for years, and if the packaging is cheap, they'll be more likely to be thrown away.

bookcase3

Other than some holes you see when you open the case, I don't see the big deal. I don't think they feel any less secure than a regular case. I think people are perceiving a difference, and therefore hating.

Jray

Apparently nobody bothered to read this statement from the article:

So whether you throw away the cases or not is irrelevant... they're going to help the environment on the front end by making this change. What's so hard to understand about that? It seems commendable to me.

I don't care what the cases look like for the most part, as long as they fit on shelves with the rest of my stuff. Slipcovers have always seemed superfluous anyway.

RocShemp

Off topic for a second, Drexl. Holy shit! Is that what the Sham Wow guy looks like now?

videoguy

Sorry to be a PITA about this, but I'm hoping someday a top executive will someday stumble upon one of my rants.

I think we could do away entirely with discs and most packaging altogether and use a chip based format (flash memory for recording, a permanent memory for home video). Or even maybe just a flash memory format and electronic distribution. You buy blank chips and then take them to a kiosk at a store or download from home and then play them in a small box connected to your TV. You could store a few hundred movies in a small box!

Peep

That's exactly what I said when they started replacing cd jewel cases with cardboard ones.

Now almost all of my 2,500 jewel cases are living in landfills.

Brent L

Penn & Teller did a great episode of Bullshit on it (it's all on YouTube actually).

joliom

Producing inferior products is not the way to save the earth.

beebs

Bury them? Why waste em' like that. There's nothing more glorious than a trashbag full of media cases on a tire fire. Personally I toss all my cases into recycling and store movies in DiscSox.

asianxcore

I know it sounds crazy but my problem with the cases is the potential damage to the artwork.

I've seen enough of my DVD's randomly come with damaged artwork due to shipping over the years, with holes in the front and back it can't be any better.

Mr. Cinema

Universal seems to be using them as well. I was in Target earlier and both Pitch Black and Riddick felt like they were in the eco case. I wouldn't be shocked if eventually, even replacement cases from Sleevetown end up being the eco kind.

Gizmo

FWIW, My review copies of those two films were in normal Blu-ray cases. Universal has used an array of different ones for the same title before so it is possible they started using the eco ones as well.

Shazam

Of course there's tons of potential landfill area. But people don't want new landfills next to them. That's the problem. It's political.

As for "no market" for recyclable material, I'm not sure where you're getting that from. There's a difference between low demand, high supply; and "no market"

jpb07

But on the back end they are doing more harm. Not only is fuel being used to transport the product, more fuel is being used to transport the proper cases to the consumers. Wal-mart and the studios can stick it up their a**. This is about saving a penny a case and has nothing to do with the environment. Any benefit they talk up is just an added bonus side effect of their real purpose.