Disappearing Memories, Resurrecting Materials - 2004: The Dawn of VHS Tape Recycling

Disappearing Memories, Resurrecting Materials - 2004: The Dawn of VHS Tape Recycling

In 2004, the demise of the VHS tape caused a major stir in the recording media industry. With the accelerated spread of DVD recorders for home use, and the rental industry switching to DVDs for many new releases, VHS tapes were quickly becoming irrelevant. The disposal of the vast number of VHS tapes that were disappearing from the shelves of homes and rental stores across the country became a new social issue.

This special issue focuses on the materials used to make VHS tapes and analyzes in detail the technical possibilities of recycling each of them. For example, polystyrene was used for the housing, polyacetal for the gears, and polyester-based magnetic material for the tape. Polyacetal, in particular, is an engineering plastic that can be converted into industrial parts, and its reuse value is high and its purchase price is several times higher than that of other general-purpose plastics. In addition, magnetic tape has electromagnetic wave absorption properties, and its reuse as a construction material (e.g., EM boards) was actually being promoted.

In order to realize such recycling, a collection and sorting system was necessary. In the video rental chain, each franchise store was responsible for the disposal of old titles, so small and medium-sized stores with a certain number of videos could serve as collection points. In addition, a small crusher capable of separating cassettes and tapes was used in the shredding process, and manual labor innovations such as the use of warm air to peel off index labels were also introduced.

At this time, Japan's imports of magnetic tape for recording reached approximately 70,000 tons in 2002. With exports to China and Southeast Asia in mind, sorting by material became essential to comply with the Basel Convention, an international environmental treaty. Therefore, recycling was not just a waste disposal process, but a new area that required advanced sorting technology and distribution systems that met international standards.

The video tape recycling initiative had the potential to expand beyond waste disposal to the utilization of material functions and export business. The end of the VHS recording media was not a waste of the times, but rather a "future source of materials. This perspective was a pioneering idea for environmental business in the early 2000s.