ODS, Europe’s leading optical disc manufacturer, has officially introduced its super-thin, environmentally-friendly EcoDisc.

While its production cuts CO2 by 54 percent and uses half the polycarbonate required for a standard disc, the 8-gram 0.6mm thin EcoDisc still features all the standard characteristics of a DVD-5. As its only a single-layer construction, it doesn't need the usual non-biodegradable adhesive used in the single-layer EcoDisc.

“The EcoDisc is an innovation whose implementation will pay off,” believes Hardy Homann, Sales and Marketing Director of the brand eins Verlag publishing company in Hamburg. “It shows that ecological sense and profitability are not mutually exclusive, but belong together.” The business publication brand eins distributed a DVD to its readers for the first time in its August edition.

The Nordisk Film company already coverrmount the EcoDisc on its popular magazine Tara. Chief Operating Officer Ulrik Rasch singled out the 50 percent weight reduction and consequent energy requirement reduction in combination with the extremely competitive price as the main reasons for choosing EcoDisc.

The only major downside is that the disc won't work in slot-loading DVD drives.

According to ODS, 1.6 billion discs were distributed via newspapers and magazines in 2005 in Western Europe, consuming 18,000 tons of polycarbonate.

Story filed 17.09.07