As I peeled the plastic wrapping off of my recently delivered copy of Farming Simulator 2011 and took a look at the contents, I noticed something strange about the disc. Instead of a completely flat, printed surface there were three sets of four blobs (which looked like glue) spread evenly around the centre hole. Curious, I tried to take the disc out of the case when I realised it flexed as I did so. After popping it out of the holder I found I could bend it much more than a regular DVD, and that it was also much thinner and lighter – closer inspection revealed a small box on the printed label which read “EcoDisc DVD ROM”.
Several Google searches later, it was apparent I was in possession of a newer type of DVD geared towards being a much greener form of optical media. A typical DVD is comprised of two bonded layers of polycarbonate, whereas the EcoDisc is just a single layer. As such it’s roughly half the weight of a normal DVD and can also be recycled because there’s no bonding used, which is toxic. According to the website, the manufacturing process also produces 52% less CO2 than a DVD5, and there is also a cut in emissions from transportation due to the reduced weight. Not to mention, the disc is less likely to crack and break due to the added flexibility. Oh, and it has the exact same capacity as a single-layer DVD5.
Apparently these have been kicking around since at least 2007, but I had never come across one before until I opened up Farming Simulator 2011 – perhaps I’ve just been living a secluded optical media life. To me, the EcoDisc seems like a bloody good idea and it would be nice to see more companies and publishers back it and adopt it as their main form of optical media, and for it to garner a bit more exposure. It’s great to see Excalibur shipping games on these.
If you’re wondering how much one of these flexes, here’s a picture I took of my EcoDisc:
Neato.
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