Viva Media Packaging: ECO-BOX Cases are NOT Recyclable

[xXFloydianXx]

As you may or may not know, there are often complaints towards various types of home media packaging, and among those most recently is their so-called environment friendly ECO-BOX cases for DVDs and even Blu-Ray movies. I think the US and Australia are the only places plagued with them.

Anyhow, the official Viva Eco-Box webpage, found here:

http://www.viva-eco-box.com/about.html

It lists a few features of the cases, one of them being 100% recyclable.

Well, it appears that they completely contradict themselves, as I found some small fineprint engraved on the inside of one of their cases:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1418780553.878515.jpg

Not really legible unless under decent light, but it says:

"This plastic case contains no recycled materials and may not be recyclable in your area."

Unfortunately, there is no general contact info on their site except some marketing rep emails that don't respond to inquiries.

Is there any other way to confront them on this issue?

Hopefully they will stop producing these garbage cases that cause us to spend hundreds on replacement cases and reprinting damaged artwork.

[Cat III]

I have no idea how to contact the company. Doesn't surprise me that they don't use any recycled material. I have the feeling that much of the "green" movement is just corporate posturing. Penn & Teller's Bullshit had an interesting episode about recycling. I recommend checking it out.

[Agent Bond]

Wow, the bastards lied to us!

[The Debts]

Another reason to have these things annihilated off the face of the Earth.

[Astro Zombie]

Originally Posted by The Debts

Another reason to have these things annihilated off the face of the Earth.

Are we talking about eco-cases or cockroaches?

[Mandalorian]

Originally Posted by Astro Zombie

Are we talking about eco-cases or cockroaches?

"A little bit of both." - Sir Peter Quill

[Astro Zombie]

Originally Posted by Mandalorian

"A little bit of both." - Sir Peter Quill

[gothic_hobbit]

These cases should be banned.

[dyne]

Wtf does this even mean?

Consumers will only notice an environmentally friendly difference after removing the DVD and the booklet from the package

[chip75]

Originally Posted by dyne

Wtf does this even mean?

It means that once you remove those two items you get horrified by the big bloody holes they've carved out of the once useful case.

It's kind of not surprising, I can imagine a machine cutting holes out of the cases and there a giant landfill with the leftovers ...

[cinemaphile]

Maybe that's their rationalization: With big sections cut out, and thinner plastic to start with, they are using less plastic and therefore "eco-friendly"

[chip75]

Originally Posted by cinemaphile

Maybe that's their rationalization: With big sections cut out, and thinner plastic to start with, they are using less plastic and therefore "eco-friendly"

I think if it weighs less they can say it's eco-friendlier to ship! But I'd imagine that most people on the street would say that Eco friendly products are recyclable.

[krazeyeyez]

You people have way to much time on your hands

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by cinemaphile

Maybe that's their rationalization: With big sections cut out, and thinner plastic to start with, they are using less plastic and therefore "eco-friendly"

Hasn't that always been the whole point? I'm being honest. Did people actually think it was anything other than that?

[Zillamon51]

All kinds of plastic things have a similar disclaimer. It's just a holdover from years ago, when recycling was more of a novelty. Nowadays, there's no need for sorting plastics for curbside recycling, everything just goes in the bin. So those of you who replace your eco-cases, please do recycle them.

(I don't like eco-cases, but I don't bother replacing them. I handle my stuff carefully, so once I get the movie home, I'm good.)

[L.J.]

Always thought it was more to do with less plastic in the case. Figure the holes are there in the mold not punched out. Will say don't like these have received so many of them in the mail broke.

[Midnight Rambler]

Originally Posted by L.J.

Always thought it was more to do with less plastic in the case.

You thought correctly.

Figure the holes are there in the mold not punched out.

Also correct. In fact, if Viva designed their tooling to be flexible, they could make both ECO and non-ECO cases with the same mold ... removable mold inserts could be incorporated such that when they run ECO cases the inserts are used to block plastic from flowing in to the areas of the mold cavity(ies) which are to be voided. Then when they want to run standard cases, they remove the mold insert(s) and plastic will flow in to and fill the mold cavity(ies) completely.

[ZoetMB]

There's a lot of confusion in these posts.

- Just because plastic doesn't contain recycled plastic, doesn't mean it's not recyclable itself.

- Just because there's a disclaimer stating that it's not recyclable in all areas, doesn't mean it's not generally recyclable, although if there's nowhere on the case that has a triangle with a number in it, then it doesn't follow modern recycling standards.

- They're not die cutting those holes out - as others have posted, the mold is created that way to use less plastic.

- And yes, those cases do kind of suck, but (IMO) it's not that big a deal. The fact remains that it uses less plastic. The fact that it's recyclable IMO is not that big an advantage because how many people trash their discs?

- Complain, but the environmentally friendly alternative would be to package the discs in recycled cardboard, similar to an LP jacket, but smaller.

People who are old enough to have bought CDs when they first became commercially available around 1984 will remember that the jewel cases originally were packaged inside a 12" tall and 6" wide cardboard box. The reason for that was to help prevent shoplifting and so CDs could easily fit into the same fixtures that LPs used. But it was a complete waste of packaging and there were so many complaints about this waste that the record labels finally got rid of it. And properly so.

[Zillamon51]

^ I'm old enough to remember CD tall boxes...

[chip75]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

They're not die cutting those holes out - as others have posted, the mold is created that way to use less plastic.

I don't think anyone thought they did ... it's just a humorous image of a landfill with a mountain of cut-outs ...