Recycle Those Discs
Last year EM did a story called “It’s Easy Being Green,” in which we talked of ways to make your studio more ecologically friendly. One of the suggestions was to recycle old CDs and DVDs. Some municipalities have local recycling options for such discs, and that’s obviously the best option for recycling. However, if you’re like me, and live in a town that doesn’t recycle CDs and DVDs, you might want to know about an organization called The CD Recycling Center of America. It offers free recycling of discs (apparently some companies charge for the service), and if you live in New England, you can arrange for pickup of your discs. Outside New England, you have to ship them the discs.
I recently went on the company’s Web site, and here are instructions for how to send your old discs to them for recycling:
“Discs only
1. Choose a small location in your home, perhaps a home office or the basement.
2. Place a small envelope or box there, and write on it “Recycle Compact Discs Here”.
3. Simply take a few minutes, check your car, and other areas of your house for old, scratched, used, or unwanted discs.
4. Place all the discs into the box.
5. Mark the box “CDs / DVDs / HD-DVD / Blu-ray Discs only”
Cases
1. If you have plastic cases such as a jewel case, or a slim case, please see if you can reuse them, or keep them for future use with perhaps another new disc.
2. If broken or cracked, please collect in a separate box, other than the disc box.
3. We accept all standard CD packages, cases and sleeves.
4. If your CD case is a cardboard and plastic combination, such as a DigiPak or similar, please tear off the plastic part and place it in this box, but see below in regards to the paper.
5. Mark the box “cases only”
Inserts, Covers, Paperwork
1. If you have covers, inserts, manuals or any other paper or paper board product that accompanies your compact disc, Please collect in a separate box. Please write on it “CD paperwork here”
2. Mark the box “paper only”
When your boxes or envelopes are full, please send to:
The Compact Disc Recycling Center of America
68H Stiles Road
Salem, NH 03079
Yes, the shipping may cost you a small amount, but although you may not realize it, you’ll be generating less trash, which you would have to pay to dispose of anyway. Less trash = less weight = less pickups which hopefully means fewer and cheaper trash pick ups.
Think about it…
* You’ll generate less trash.
* You’ll be helping the very planet you live on.
* Landfills will be less filled with non-decomposing plastic
* Incinerators will be generating less pollution that hurts our atmosphere.
* Your Recycling companions will love you for it.”
