The environmentally conscious ways to do CD replication

While I helping my daughter on her school project on the subject of pollution, I learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is a gigantic piece of garbage pile floating on the North East of the Pacific Ocean. The garbage is mainly plastic debris from beaches along the coast lines and from ships and boats commuting on the ocean. Apparently plastic is the main culprit. I work for a CD manufacturing company in San Jose that produces thousands of CD's and DVD's every day. If there is someone who should feel guilty about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that one must be me. But what can I do? Wait until someone invents a compact disc that is made of paper? I am afraid that day will not come soon. Wait, looking at a typical CD packaging I found most of the plastic was actually on the packaging. To confirm this was the case I actually weighted the plastic content and came up with the following table. Item Description Weight in OZrn--------------------------- -----------------rnCD or DVD 0.53rnStandard Jewel Case 2.10rnSlim Jewel Case 1.38rnAmaray Case 2.53rnSlim Amaray Case 1.68rnDigipak 0.76 As we can see from the table above, the CD or DVD itself only accounts for a small fraction of the plastic content. For example, a CD jewel case uses almost 4 times more plastic then the CD. The slim version of jewel case or amaray case cuts down the content by about 35%. The winner obviously goes to digipak. Digipak is a gatefold (book-style) paperboard or card stock outer binding, with a plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. Digipak has become so popular among musicians as an alternative to jewel case in the last few years. Musicians love digipak for its shock resistance. If you drop a jewel case to the ground it will definitely be shattered. The light-weight of a digipak makes it shock-resisted. Digipak also uses less plastic when compared with other cases. Albeit the smarter design of a digipak plastic is still in the equation. For that New Cyberian came up with the idea of replacing the plastic tray with a paper tray. To make it even more environmental, the paper tray will be made from either recycled sugarcane or egg carton. New Cyberian has now made the whole package non-plastic and bio-degradable. As a musician myself I know we tend to have higher standard than the rest of the world. On your next CD replication job please choose environmental green products on the packaging. I am sure your fans will not only appreciate your music, but also your concern for the environment.