The amount of the disc returns and wastage is growing every year
With billions of CDs and DVDs being released every year, the demand for dealing with returns and confiscated pirated discs is still bigger than supply. This branch of industry has a promising future since it seems like there is a market for everything: recycled shrinkwrap, paper, cardboard, the plastic case and the disc itself. And the most valuable and desired in the whole process is its security. Recycled material is later used in the automotive industry and in household utilities.
Every single stage of the disc recycling is an extra secure procedure – mainly because of the intellectual copyrights of the returned material and data sensitivity, but also to ensure that the discs coming from raided pirated facilities will be removed from the market forever. The returns from replicators and distributors are delivered on pallets and wrapped in a black plastic film to make any attempt of tampering easy to detect. All employees are vetted before being allowed to work at the facility premises. Destruction takes place in a separate containers and is closely monitored by CCTV cameras. Discs are dismantled automatically, there is almost no manual job involved in the recycling process. Recycling plants have dedicated granulators for each kind of polymer processed, so basically there is no ‘waste’. The higher percentage of plastic contained in the final product, the more valuable the mix. The amount of plastic should exceed 96%.
Not only CDs and DVDs are subject to recycling. Specialised plants can deal also with tape, VHS and even vinyl, which is enyoing the renewal of its popularity, to extract the plastic.
Although recycling is already a green business there are attempts to make it even more green and efficient and thus more profitable. In order to optimise the chain destruction, companies are moving away from storing loads of packaged material to be manufactured and set up destruction facilities on site. They provide the necessary equipment, the qualified staff and bags for the destroyed discs. Replicators’ job consists only in feeding discs into the machine. Everything else is fully automated and secure, because nothing ever even leaves the site. It allows to get rid of the transportation issues and as a result – cuts down the carbon dioxide emission.