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148 P P a r t I I I : a r t I I I : W h a t Y o u C a n D oh a t Y o u C a n D o

It doesn’t make sense to mail in a disc at a time (although you could). A better idea is to
set up a bin in the corner of the office, and once it fills up with CDs and DVDs, ship it to a
recycler.
The following are some places to start in your CD and DVD recycling efforts:
• North America Link 7-9 and Link 7-10
• United Kingdom Link 7-11 and Link 7-12
• Australia Link 7-13 and Link 7-14
More good news: Companies and individuals are recycling. One recycler in San Jose,
California processes a million CDs each month. In its second year in business, the company
recycled 20 million CDs. A lot of those CDs came from software companies looking to get
rid of surplus inventory.
Change Your Mindset
You can lessen the amount of discs your organization uses by following some simple tips:

• Use rewriteable DVD/CD media.
• Find out if the information you’re looking for on disc is available over the Internet.
If it is, you may not need to buy the disc.
• Keeping your discs out of direct sunlight and away from heat and water will
prolong their life.
• Minor scratches can be fixed by rubbing a mild abrasive (such as toothpaste) on the
disc surface in a circular motion from the center to the outside.
Consumers take advantage of the shiny discs by doing things such as turning them into
dresses, disco balls, drink coasters, and reflectors for bicycle seats. However, you’re not
likely to task someone in your organization with turning all your old CDs into disco balls.
Chances are, they’d just go in the trash, adding to that 45 million ton count.
David vs. America Online
You may remember a few years back opening your mailbox to find membership discs from
America Online (AOL). You may also remember seeing those discs in your Sunday
newspaper, on boxes of cereal, and near grocery store checkout lines.
Well, the chickens have come home to roost. Now, all those discs (it is estimated that
more than a billion were made) are out there somewhere. Some are in people’s basements,
some are in storage, but a lot of them wound up in landfills.

NOTE Believe it or not, some people actually collect the AOL discs. Depending on what image was
silkscreened on the top, collectors actively seek the discs that are missing from their compilations
and trade with like-minded collectors.

However, a couple of IT workers from Berkeley, California decided to send a message to
AOL. In 2001, they set a goal of collecting one million of those installation discs and then
shipping them to AOL. For a time, they even had a website (www.nomoreaolcds.com)