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2023

It Begins with an E

The CD at 40 Project

Sustainability and the CD.

What do compact discs look like in their afterlife? By some estimates, several hundreds of billions of discs were fabricated since the introduction of the format, amounting to tonnes of plastic waste. Kieran Devlin, of Revive Innovations, offers one answer: a new process for reprocessing waste optical media items to make them useable in interior design and architecture, such as countertops and seating, as depicted here. Image credit: RE-CD, by Revive Innovations.

What is the environmental cost of making, distributing and disposing of a disc? Find out participants’ thoughts, and join the conversation below:

The CD at 40 Project

The CD at 40 Project

The CD at 40 project is a research impact project funded by Durham University and led by Dr Eamonn Bell (Department of Computer Science). It investigates the history of compact disc manufacture and use in the UK, since the invention of the format in the early 1980s.

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