Photo Credit - andresrueda
The DVD-R store was closed when I walked down the street. The weather’s nice so I just put my little stack of empty cases plus 4 DVDs that had no English audio on the doorstep with a little note that said ‘Gratuit’ The cases are the exact type that he uses for his display , so I think they will get used rather than thrown in the garbage.
Reuse is always better than recycling. Reducing is even better. I don’t watch very many movies and I hardly ever buy them in the form of DVDs. Renting movies should be an action that uses less plastic than buying. Unfortunately, many people have helped make places like Blockbuster spread because we all want to be able to watch a movie the moment that it is released. You do the math. Big video rental stores buy huge quantities of plastic DVDs and packaging so they can guarantee that it is available whenever you want it. The aftermath of this is that those physical products are greatly devalued after a few weeks. How many people are going to get duplicate DVDs from cheap friends for Christmas this year?
Wouldn’t it make more sense for the providers of entertainment media to have a master copy and reproduction rights in each location? What about switching to some kind of digital file that cannot be copied? Every loyal customer could have a purpose specific flash drive that they bring to the rental store. When you pay to rent a new movie, they remove the ones that you have rented previously. I would love to get some feedback about this idea. Maybe it’s already happening. Maybe there is some fatal flaw in my logic. Let me know.
November 24th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
The only flaw in the logic is the concept that the file “cannot be copied”. People that are after a cheaper way to get what they want will always be more innovative than those responsible for security can ever anticipate. I remember a few years ago a ton of $ was spent to create a new CD that could not be copied or ripped to .mp3. Within 24 hours of its release some innovative people found that they could overwhelm this new tactic by simply tracing the outside of the CD with a Sharpie. The pirates of the world will always find a way to cheat the system, and production companies know this. I don’t know that they would be readily willing to put the amount of trust required toward this… they are no where near as committed to reducing plastic waste as you or I. Perhaps I’m just cynical, but trust (or lack thereof) tends to get in the way of good ideas.
November 24th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Thanks for the comment David. I think your cynicism is probably well founded.
People who are less consumeristic and less interested in the latest Hollywood movie have lots of less wasteful options. There are plenty of compelling, long, legal videos on YouTube. Public libraries usually have some DVDs. I once wrote a post about a social website that has people trading DVDs from their collections. – http://www.lendaround.com/
November 24th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
We use Netflix for movies we aren’t sure we will watch more than a few times and itunes for ones we want long term. We have a large harddrive and so we just watch on our computers or put on our ipods which can be hooked up to the tv.
November 24th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
Netflix is a pretty good option. We used the Canadian knock-off of Netflix and we loved it.
November 25th, 2009 at 9:24 am
BTW, the picture is NOT my collection of DVDs, we had seven or eight of them.
December 21st, 2009 at 1:26 pm
If technology today is any indication of what’s to come in the future, we will see that this type of media will be transmitted electronically without any packaging at all. This assumes ofcourse that the consumer is “linked in” somehow either through cable ot sat tv or internet.
December 27th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
hmm, I was thinking (almost) the very same thing whilst Christmas shopping, looking at dvds (& games) – why cant I just bring in a memory stick to transfer onto? I guess eventually things will go the way of itunes and movies will be more commonly downloaded, it’s just getting past the ‘ritual’ of buying a film as a gift and also physically seeing your collection on your shelf. SOME cds are now packaged in card with paper foam.