What To Do...with Old CDs?
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin on 10. 1.06
Sharing in chains of emails--both philosophical and practical--is one of the privileges of being a member of the TreeHugger team. A recent example started with a question from a TreeHugger Tipster:
"I have a bunch of old CDs I need to throw away. They're internet promos, old PC reinstall discs, etc.: nothing that I can sell at a CD recycle shop. I've searched the internet and your site but haven't come up with anything. Any ideas?"
(Dennis: Being humble, we left out the part about "Thanks and I love the site." But thanks, and we love our readers.)
Petz stepped up to the challenge, noting that Smile Plastics are Plastic Fantastic, worth a reminder since this company was last mentioned here over a year ago and is a company that could recycle a lot of CDs if demand permits. The translucent sparkling plastic shown in the image above results from Smile Plastic's process. Of course, one of the main issues with recycling raises its head here: a reliable supply of "raw materials" means major waste sources, in this case impounded illicit CDs, are preferable to the donations of smale-scale waste generators like the TreeHugger Tipster.
A more small-fry eco-friendly idea can be found in the example of Terra's "No Oil" campaign (Spanish website, but the picture says it all). "No Oil" uses an old CD as the support for a bicycle bumper sticker, reminding the drivers, fuming (pun intended) in the bicyclist's wake, that it may be slower but bikes have advantages.
The Worldwise folks reckon you can craft CDs into drink coasters, scarecrows--the reflections spook the birds, or garden row markers. Your disco-ball project could really eat up a pile of old CDs, and yet more projects can be found at sites like hints and things (wow! what an eternal spring of crafty inspiration!) or family internet.
Well, re-use is above recycle on the pollution prevention hierarchy, but the crafts avenue may be too tacky for your bamboo-zen pad, and re-use as a candle-wax catcher may be the wrong choice if the CD makes only a short detour on its way to the landfill or incinerator. Fortunately, many local businesses are stepping up to the demand and collecting CDs for recycling. Check with you local waste management office for recommendations. Or, pack your collection up and send them off to a for-fee recycler such as Greendisk. (Europeans: Reuze, UK report on several possibilities for recycling unbroken disks sent postage-paid.)
TreeHuggers: your turn to share. Tell us, what do you do with your old CDs?
Via: TreeHugger Tipster Dennis and your TreeHugger Team
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I never go camping without an old CD- they make great reflectors if you have to signal to a rescue airplane...
Hi there,
RecyclingCDs.com will take old CDs and DVDs and turn them into useful items such as clocks with awesome designs printed on them.
Visit their gorgeous website here: http://www.recyclingcds.com
Make cute coasters out of them, with a lil help from the CD Coaster Kit :)
Make a sterling engine:
http://www.physics.sfasu.edu/astro/courses/egr112/StirlingEngine/stirling.html
Very cool.
I give old CDs/DVDs to the local library -- they do have regular sales, but also to put some of the software into their library, so someone else can make use of it.
I make mosaics out of cd fragments.
Why do I have to pay greendisk to recycle and then resell my CDs?
I mean I would be more than happy to buy CDs from them, but why do I have to pay them for the CDs I am sending?
I made a wall covering/ curtain by drilling holes in several hundred old junk CDs and zip tying them together.
This works great with old records etc.
I used to have this up in my dorm room and I got tons of compliments
If you have a garden, old CD's make a great "Scarecrow". Just string them on a wire or light rope between your beds. They move with the breeze, and the reflections scare many birds and small mammals. We have a ton of crows in our area (displaced by out-of-control building, lured in by trash day), but I've never had one bother my garden at all.
You can recycle CD's into more Cd's... see here ..
http://www.polymer-reprocessors.co.uk/
Or stack them up and stick a LED light in the center hole and make a lamp. I saw this some where before. Seemed like a neat project.
---ed. note---
Saw this somewhere before, eh? Could it have been at TreeHugger: bitlight light hit parade?
There is a nonprofit called Alternative Community Training that employs disabled adults who recycle and refurbish CDs, video cassettes, and floppy disks. You can get a tax donation receipt for your donation plus the postage it costs you to send it to them (media mail is the least expensive). They have an online donation form--see http://www.charityguide.org/volunteer/fewhours/obsolete-technology.htm for the link and for information on another CD recycling opportunity, Back Thru The Future. I'm in the process of collecting CDs and video cassettes to send.
Yes I have made a couple CD Lamps from them.
Worldwatch has some recommendations in their "Good Stuff?" handbook: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1481
how about using the cd's as reflectors & constructing a geodesic parabolic solar concentrator for solar cookers etc, ? They could be heated & the corners bent over into triangles & then riveted together at the flanges to create the geodesic shape - recycled & eco-useful...easy..
I'd just emailled my local government (ACT, Australia) about recycling of old CDs a day before I came across this post - nice timing!
While the ACT government doesn't offer a service themselves, they were able to point me to 2 companies who do:
- CD ROM Services (who bundle it as part of a CD destruction service), and
- Australian Plastics Reprocessing (who prefer commercial quantities, but will take smaller amounts).
(There's links to a bit more info on these services on my blog)
I've yet to explore either of these options further, but it might be a good place to start for people in the south-east of Oz.
Some of the krafty kids at www.craftster.org might want your CDs.. look what they make with them..
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=8959.0
i send them to greendisk. i don´t mind paying to send them... after all, i have to pay to get my trash picked up anyway. at least my conscience is clear when i´m recycling.
Hi guys,
I work for a company called Ausmag Media, based in Sydney Australia. Our company offers a CD and DVD Recycling service and then best news is that the only cost to you is in getting your old discs to us.
Traditional methods of CD & DVD recycling usually involve shredding the disc which produces a lot of small particles that are hard to manage and result in a poor quality substrate with limited applications for recycling.
The service that Ausmag provides is different. Ausmag have a system that removes both the recorded and printed surface from the disc, making them unreadable and resulting in a clean disc base. This clean base disc is then processed for recycling in to products such as packaging, fasteners and variety of other products.
The Ausmag system can process up to 3000 discs per hour and if the content is sensitive you can even watch the destruction process so you can be assured data is no longer readable.
If you are after more information about this service then feel fre to contact me by email or visit our website.
Richard