Stop The Cycle Now!

SToP THe CycLE Now!
CDs, DVDs, and the Reduction of Optical Media Waste

Rationale:

Electronic waste products count among those toxic materials and hard-to-recycle plastics. The 21st century’s mind-boggling technological obsolescence issue and voluminous amount of electronic production pose additional problems to our currently ill managed waste disposal system. This IEC material seeks to address this issue by providing alternatives in production and disposal of one of the most common electronic media – the optical discs.

Green Living Tips (2008) notes that “CDs and DVDs are made from various lacquers and aluminum and sometimes gold; but by far most of their weight is the polycarbonate plastic - yet another plastic made from crude oil.” For this reason, they are incredibly challenging to recycle. It is said that they don't break down readily and over time can release Bisphenol A, a toxic chemical which has health implications (Green Living Tips 2008).

Being a popular data storage format, CDs and DVDs proliferate almost everywhere. Music, video, data discs and increasing amounts of advertising material nowadays come on CD and DVD media. Furthermore, with the high level of poverty in the Philippines, the selling of cheap pirated CDs and DVDs has become an alternative livelihood to those who want to cash-in extra income. Thus amassing CDs and DVDs has been more popular to most Filipinos than renting these.

This IEC material seeks to inform the general CD/DVD buying/using public of the alternatives of reducing the production of CDs and DVDs thus contributing to waste disposal management of these electronic wastes. Moreover, as the IEC material provides insights on CD and DVD waste reduction, it also partially seeks to address the growing concern over media piracy in Metro Manila.

References:

Eco Geek Blog. (2007). Where Do CDs Go to Die? Retrieved 20 August 2008 from
http://ecogeekblog.greenoptions.com/2007/06/28/ask-the-ecogeek-where-do-cds-go-to-die/

Green Living Tips. (2008). DVD and CD Recycling. Retrieved 23 August 2008 from http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/245/1/DVD-and-CD-Recycling.html

Mid Sussex District Council. (2008). Top Tips for Reducing Your Waste and Recycling. Retrieved 23 August 2008 from http://www.midsussex.gov.uk/page.cfm?pageID=6150

Novey, Levi. (2008). Pirated DVDs Sold in Peru Will Pollute the Country for a Long Time. Retrieved 20 August 2008 from http://ecoworldly.com/2008/07/28/pirated-dvds-sold-in-peru-will-pollute-the-country-for-a-long-time/

Wikipedia. (2008). Bisphenol A. Retrieved 26 August 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A

27 August 2008
ESS535M