Recycle Your Media Waste

I am adding two sites to the Resources list today that you should definitely keep on file: CD Recycling Center of America and GreenDisk.com. Both are excellent resources for properly and securely disposing your unwanted cds and dvds.

I recommend using CD Recycling center for personal use in addition to office use, since they do not charge you for their services. The facility takes cds, dvds, and any of the packaging that goes along with it. The only costs to you are shipping and the time it takes to sort your items. However, you must register with their site and notify them of your upcoming shipment.

Got a PA twiddling their thumbs in the corner of the office? You may also download graphics to properly label your recycling bins.

Greendisk is a useful resource for production and post production offices and film festivals that generate or collect mutiple and various types of media waste. For a fee, they take the following items:
-All forms of electronic media and their cases: diskettes, zip disks, CDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVDs et al, video tape (i.e. VHS), audio tape, game cartridges, DAT, DLT, Beta or Digibeta, and virtually all other type of computer tapes.
-Hard drives, Zip and Jazz drives, jump drives, etc.
-All forms of printer cartridges including both inkjet and toner.
-All types of cell phones, pagers, PDAs and their chargers, cables, and headset accessories.
-All types of rechargeable batteries (not regular alkaline ones) and their chargers.
-All of the cords, cables, boards, chips, etc. attached to or removed from a computer.

They also take small computer accessories such as Ipods, digital cameras and laptops, but you must use their specific shipping materials. You can purchase boxes that can be used for collection and shipment, as well, for your office's workstations. If you purchase your boxes through them, they also include postage, processing and an audit report with a Certificate of Destruction. Greendisk helps to complete the cycle by selling recycled CDs and cases. You can also include one of these companies' links printed on the artwork of your new dvd cases to pass on the good word.

One last note: if you're sending off "obsolete" unused media, such as blank DV tapes, DVCAMs, or Betacams, try donating it to a local film school that is probably still using such stocks.