It sounds like a bad movie. Wait, it IS a bad movie. A bad DVD, to be precise — at least from an environmental standpoint. A division of Walt Disney this August will begin selling DVDs that self-destruct after 48 hours, dubbed EZ-Ds. After an EZ-D’s plastic packaging is opened and it’s exposed to oxygen, the disk plays perfectly for 48 hours; then a chemical reaction makes it unreadable and consumers can toss it in the trash. Environmentalists are not impressed. “It’s unintelligent and illogical to take a durable, reusable product like a DVD and turn it into a product that becomes waste in 48 hours,” said David Wood of the Computer TakeBack Campaign. Flexplay, the company that manufactures the disks, says buyers could mail the old EZ-Ds off to a company that recycles DVDs. But enviros point out that the target market for EZ-Ds seems to be the supremely lazy, folks who are not likely to take any extra effort to ensure the disks get recycled.

Solar plane crosses U.S., makes green sexy again
Is the sharing economy skidding out?
Amtrak might allow pets to ride with you
Comments