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Sanyo Develops Corn-Based Biodegradeable CD
Recoil_42 writes "PC World has an intriguing article about one way to help ease a growing problem: computer waste. Sanyo, with the help of Dow, has created a biodegradeable disc made of corn. The discs take 50-100 years to degrade, well within acceptable limits, and should come to market by the end of this year. The speedbump, of course, is the projected price: 3 times that of a normal plastic disc, but that cost is expected to be reduced to 1.2 times as (if?) the discs become more popular."
Biodegradability is nice but will somebody please check to see what percentage of our landfills are CDs (and CD cases). I've heard that in that category, yard and lawn waste is one of the leading contenders. Which I might note is biodegradable but won't because nothing biodegrades in an anaerobic landfill environment.
Maybe we should make the case out of this stuff as well. And why not the monitor casing, etcccc.....? Sounds like at least one step is being made on making computers green. Except i would argue that computers are already green because they make us more effiecnt and we dont have to trave to the library to get info anymore and we can work from home.
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There are plenty of short term uses for CDs. Software might be one of them (I don't expect to be using anything on my shelf 20 years from now), although I wouldn't want to pay for a commercial software package, or music, on media specially formulated to degrade over time.
Here's a good example - it's how I go through the majority of my discs. I use my digital camera, take about 70 or 80 pictures, download them to the PC. I remove the bad ones, leave the good ones alone, and fix the marginal ones (reframe, color correct, fix red eye, etc.). Then I burn the CD, take it to Sam's Club, and get great prints cheaper and of better quality then film (because I was able to eliminate or fix images).
Then I throw the CD away.
Sometimes I burn projects at work to take home, then I burn the work I did at home to bring it back to the office. I could use rewritable, but they cost more, and I don't use them that often.
Rewritable CDs are also not as dependable, so I do backups on a regular CDR. Then, when I backup again, I throw the older ones away.
Again, though, I don't think I want my backups on degradeable discs.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
are these things going to start breaking down by say if you keep them in a jewel case long enough? im not really sure i would like that too much.. they would probably break down as long as oxygen is present... but it would be nice if they didnt do so if you were actually trying to store them for a few years since it seems like it says they'll be degraded by 50 to 100 years which means they start breaking down before that..
Actually, we've got way too much corn. There was a great article in the NY Times magazine called "The (Agri)Cultural Contradictions Of Obesity" (Oct. 12 or 13, I think, but too old to link for free) which explains how:
1) the price of corn directly affects the prices of many other food items;
2) we produce way too much corn due to a screwy corn subsidy program which encourages farmers to produce as much as they can, rather than as much as we need, and this drives the price down to the point where we all get hurt;
3) overproduction leads directly to increased consumption, and this is the reason that Americans are experiencing an epidemic of obesity.
It's an astounding article -- head to the library and look it up, or just pay the Times a buck or two... it's very persuasive.