Here's the deal:

Every month I throw away at least 150 CDs, CD-Rs, DVD-Rs and DVDs that either people give me or I simply get through my mail. In my office we also throw away lots of CDs and DVDs.

I presume they get recycled, since they are plastic, right?

Am I right to assume the same about HD DVD and Blu-ray? I mean... when any of these formats become as cheap, common and "throw-awayable" as CDs and DVDs, will we be able to get rid of them in a environmental-friendly way?

Is the hard coating on Blu-ray irrelevant in that matter?

Thanks.

Here's the deal:

Every month I throw away at least 150 CDs, CD-Rs, DVD-Rs and DVDs that either people give me or I simply get through my mail. In my office we also throw away lots of CDs and DVDs.

I presume they get recycled, since they are plastic, right?


Boy, I'm not sure I presume that, I kinda thought the metallics and glue cut them out or the usable chain, but I'd love to find out I'm wrong.

Incidentally, this is one of the (many)reasons I objected to the whole DIVX scam, because those were pretty-much single-use disks and packaging. I found that idea extremely wasteful.

DVD keep-cases are the worst, talk about one pound of $hit in a ten pound bag. At least the high-def formats cut the size a little, but I'd venture to guess they make up for it in the blue and ruby tinting of the resins.

You assume wrong. millions of CD/DVD's get thrown into landfills each year. The same is already true for BD and HD DVD. I would hazard to guess that the problem is worse for BD than HD DVD. Supposedly the yields are lower for BD than HD DVD, which means more rejects. Some replicators do recylce their rejects, and others just ship them off to the landfill (the majority don't recycle). Since BD discs are mainly made overseas, I'm not sure what they do there. Also, a hardcoat chemical is added to the BD disc, and I'm not sure how it might effect the recycling of those discs.

But lower yields mean more bad discs, which means more landfill on a global scale, since in the long run, not all replicators will recycle. If you want a "green" form of entertainment, then you need to be pushing for 100% download and the death of both new formats.

The CD Recycling Center of America accepts:

We accept all types of discs CD, DVD, Blu Ray, HD DVD. We also accept all types of disc packaging including sleeves, jewel cases, slim cases, DVD cases and shell cases. We accept the paper components of the packaging as well.

http://www.cdrecyclingcenter.com/

I noticed yesterday that CD/DVD were on the prohibited items list at my local recylcing center. I asked why and they said it was because they are a mixture of aluminum and plastic. The center does it's own recycling and they can't process mixed materials very well. They can take, paper/plastic, or metal/Paper, or basically any type of material that is combined with paper (I guess the paper just burns off metal or plastic). They also accept mixed materials like glass/metal, when the metal is a screw on lid, or something else that can be easily removed by hand.

However, there is no easy way to remove the aluminum layer of a CD from the plastic, so they won't accept them. If they come in, they just get moved to a regular trash bin and head to the landfill (the jewel case or DVD snapper would get recycled).

Reading the CD recylcing center's material, it appears that they have to send the material to China for it to be utilized. This would lead me to believe that no place in the US really wants it, because they said it could cost $12,000 just to ship a load of recycled CD's to China. If someplace in the US processed it, you would have to be able to move it at a cheaper price than that.

Every month I throw away at least 150 CDs, CD-Rs, DVD-Rs and DVDs that either people give me or I simply get through my mail. In my office we also throw away lots of CDs and DVDs.

I presume they get recycled, since they are plastic, right?

Optical media doesn't get recyled due to the toxic chemicals released when melting and the aluminum layer which when it melts contaminated the plastic. I learned that from my recylcing center a few years ago.

The interesting thing from your original post is you said you "throw away 150 CDs...." At least here in Virginia anything thrown away simply goes to the landfill. Do any states actually do trash sorting to seperate out recyclable material? My understanding is that anything in trash goes to the trash and fills the landfill.

Its ashame we could not recycle everything but that is life. In 25-50 something years, we will be slinging our garbage into the sun via the space elevator or whatever technology pops up.

Optical media doesn't get recyled due to the toxic chemicals released when melting and the aluminum layer which when it melts contaminated the plastic. I learned that from my recylcing center a few years ago.

The interesting thing from your original post is you said you "throw away 150 CDs...." At least here in Virginia anything thrown away simply goes to the landfill. Do any states actually do trash sorting to seperate out recyclable material? My understanding is that anything in trash goes to the trash and fills the landfill.

Here in NorCal people are trained by the local trash collection co. to separate recyclables before they end up in the trash. I give the garbageman one bag of food trash, another with plastic containers, another with glass materials, another with newspapers, and another with cardboard containers every week.

Its ashame we could not recycle everything but that is life. In 25-50 something years, we will be slinging our garbage into the sun via the space elevator or whatever technology pops up.

Or we'll just all be dead buried right along side all this non-degradable crap, and some other evolved creature will get it's shot to mess things up. ;)

They could lay them out shiny side up and reduce global warming :)