Daily Texan
Laura Dewey
H-E-B recently abandoned the idea of selling EZ-Ds, DVDs that self destruct after 48 hours.
Although some EZ-Ds may still be left on the shelves, they should be gone in the next 30 days, H-E-B employees said. The Texas Campaign for the Environment claims this development as a victory for environmentalists, though H-E-B has not acknowledged a link between the discontinuation of EZ-Ds and environmental concerns.
“We have sold maybe three since Christmas,” said Mary Wah, an H-E-B employee. “I personally think the price of $7 is too high.”
A spokesman for H-E-B national headquarters said the EZ-Ds were just a product test-run in a few stores that turned out not to be of any value to the consumer.
But Robin Schneider, executive director of the Texas Campaign for the Environment, said that “H-E-B has seen the environmental light” in a press release by the Texas Campaign for the Environment last Wednesday.
“Disposable DVDs are limiting a product that could otherwise be used a long time, and that’s a bad idea. For every pound of material made, 32 pounds are wasted, on the average,” Schneider said. “These DVDs are a waste of energy and resources.”
The EZ-D comes in shrink wrap. When the package is opened, the DVD begins to change color and becomes worthless in two days.
In order to fight the production of these DVDs, The Texas Campaign for the Environment mailed 1,200 postcards to Disney protesting this product and staged a demonstration at the 7-Eleven on Guadalupe and Martin Luther King Boulevard.
This Disney product was created to eliminate rental late fees and to avoid an additional trip to the movie store. Other local stores involved in this test market include 7-Eleven, Walgreens, and Toys “R” Us.
Marsh Tarnow, a representative of the 7-Eleven corporate headquarters in Austin, said the convenience store chain was “no longer involved” with the product.
Tags: producer responsibility
Categories: News Clipping
English
English
Spanish