[AV Media Matters] Green Media

[Chuck.piot@adm.ucsc.edu]

"Save a tree and buy a DVD!"

This is a curious statement and one that is great for barroom banter
with
greens and non-greens alike.

I used to work at Seagate and was part of the Closure Team for the disc
manufacturing plants in Mexicali, Mexico and Anaheim, CA.  The disc
"construction" certainly was not "green" and the metals used was one of
the
reasons (labor was another, of course) that manufacturing was done
outside
of the U.S. where environmental and worker health laws are different.  

In fact, I have heard that the major reason for the failure of reel to
reel
tape made in the 70s and early 80s was that the manufacturers couldn't
find
a bonding agent to replace the agent made of whale (hunting of which was
mostly banded in 1973) ! Is this an urban legend? 

Additionally, the "next great environmental disaster," my green friends
tell
me, is the pc and monitor in the landfills and dumps.

So the question for the bar is "Is analog and digital storage media
greener
than paper?"

I still haven't resolved this personally!

Chuck Piotrowski

Moderators Comment:
I know there will be more chat on this particular point - but there was
a lubricant that had elements of whale oil that was used by a few
manufacturers in a few products over a certain period of time- not all
products and not all manufacturers and not all the time - and these
lubricants were replaced. 

Frankly we really don't know precisely WHY tapes fail - there are some
theories relating to the long molecular chains breaking down due to a
hydrolysis reaction which creates shorter chains of lower molecular
weight which therefore migrate to the surface - and are sticky - but
this is all speculation. It sounds good - but this has never been proven
to my knowledge. 

At one point the Smithsonian had an organic chemist working on it sort
of part time, and was looking for the mechanism for failure and a good
non-destructive technique for determination of the level of
deterioration. We ended up looking at atomic force microscopy but the
work was never completed and was largely unsuccessful - at least
statistically. 

 I have heard that a group that shall go nameless thinks that there is
an acidic reaction that can be measured in a simple way, but I have
profound doubts as to the efficacy of a test of this nature. I believe
it is a theory that they hope they can find the data to support as
opposed to studying the mechanisms and then coming up with a real test.
The reality is that there are MANY different tape formulations - and a
simple single test that is likely to be effective for one formulation is
unlikely to be effective for others, and certainly not effective for all
of them. Unlike film - tape is all different stuff. Comparing the
formulation type of a quad tape with the formulation of a DV tape is
very unlikely to reveal very much in common.
jim

____________________________


-----Original Message-----
From: Micheal Ellixson [mailto:mike@maxoptical.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 1:36 PM
To: AV Media Matters
Subject: RE: [AV Media Matters] Say Goodbye to Floppies


I completely agree with Dell for the discontinued use of Floppy drives.
With CD's, DVD's and Business Card CD's as the present and future
storage and relaying of information, there is no need for such a small
capacity media. Computers are at a point where firmware, product
information and brochures i.e. can easily be downloaded across the
internet from websites and libraries in a few minutes or less.
 Time to move on...

 
Mike Ellixson
Max Optical
Save a tree and buy a DVD!

 

-----Original Message-----
From: James Lindner [mailto:jim@media-matters.net] 
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 5:03 AM
To: AV-Media-Matters@topica.com
Subject: [AV Media Matters] Say Goodbye to Floppies

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/02/07/dell.floppydisks.reut/index.htm
l



James Lindner


Moderator: AV Media Matters Listserve
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