Pirated DVDs Sold in Peru Will Pollute the Country for a Long Time
One of the great things about living in a developing country like Peru is that you can buy DVDs of new movies for a very low price. For instance, if you want a DVD of The Dark Knight, the new Batman movie, you can already buy it here. Not too shabby, eh?
Of course, you cannot be a stickler for quality with such DVDs, or you will be sorely disappointed. But if you like laughing along with audiences, wearing a hearing aid while watching movies, or pride yourself in your non-humble ability to tell people to sit down and shut up in the theater, then I’ve got a Kungfu Panda DVD that will be perfect for you.
It will probably come as no surprise to you that these kinds of DVDs are made by pirating businesses who use digital cameras to record new movies in theaters. They then distribute them quickly to the masses for profit. Peru, as well as many other developing countries where pirated DVDs are sold will unquestionably suffer over time from the pollution these DVDs will cause. To better understand why the environmental effect of DVDs will be proportionally greater in Peru than in a country like the United States, read on.
In Peru, it’s virtually impossible to rent a DVD. Why?
It’s the economy, stupid!
As there is a high level of poverty in Peru, the only way vendors of movies can make some cash is by selling DVDs that are cheap. The current rate in Peru is about 3 nuevos soles per a DVD. The exchange rate is currently 2.8 soles/$1 US. You do the math.
It almost becomes ridiculous to think how much Americans will pay to own new DVDs. I myself don’t care to own DVDs, as I generally don’t plan to watch movies more than once, with a few exceptions. So I would almost always prefer to rent movies than buy them. In Peru I have little choice though, because renting movies is virtually impossible given the low cost of pirated DVDs.
There are only a handful of stores where you can rent movies in Peru, and there is also not a DVD rental company that uses mail like Netflix. Believe or not, after coming to Peru I have begun to understand that stores that rent movies in the U.S. and other countries actually play a big role in environmental protection <gasp!> Say it ain’t so!
Think about it for a moment. How often do DVD rental stores lease out a single DVD copy to customers? Probably each disc is viewed anywhere from 50-100 times. In essence this means that there is at least some reuse going on. None of this kind of reuse happens in a country like Peru– and this is a terrible thing. Why?
Materials that are used to make DVDs and CDs are incredibly challenging to recycle and are quite bad for the environment.
DVDs and CDs are made from a stew of metals like aluminum and nickel, along with plastics, dyes, and other substances. For this reason, they are incredibly challenging to recycle. After being tossed in the garbage, they can pollute water sources as their components break down and leach gradually into the earth. Needless to say, any kind of pollution generally affects animals, plants, and people badly. The Daily Green recently published an excellent article summarizing the negative environmental effects caused by CDs and DVDs. The article also discusses some potential alternatives that might help alleviate the problem in the future, such as growth in digital downloads of movies.
Read More About How Electronic Devices Affect the Environment and How You Can Recycle Them on the Green Options Network:
- Daily Tip: Getting Rid of VHS
- TV’s Go Digital, but Where Do Old TV’s Go?
- Green Mobile: How Cell Phone Makers Stack Up
- Green PCs and Optimizing their Lifecycle
- What to Do with Your Old Electronic Devices: Get Paid, Help Those in Need!
Photo Credit: © Levi T. Novey
While I don’t completely disagree with your assumptions, there are a couple things to keep in mind. There are a LOT of people in the US that buy DVD’s. Many people do like to watch movies several times, especially children’s films. I would bet there are a lot more people in the US buying DVD’s than there are here in Peru. Secondly, most of us here in Lima have learned that after you’ve seen a movie (or played a PS2 game ) you can usually trade them back in to the vendor at a rate of 2 or 3 used for 1 new. So there is some recycling going on here, also.
Kelly, thanks for your comment. I have not heard yet of trading the DVDs back, but that is definitely encouraging to learn about. I will ask the primary person I buy DVDs from if he does it is well. Thanks for the tip! If that’s the case, then you might be right that there is more recycling than I thought.
Best,
Levi
Nice article.
Personally, I don’t by any movie until the DVD is a proper copy, not filmed in the cinema.
Some points…
The environmental aspect of DVD use is interesting and not something I had thought of, but whether the discs are pirated or not is beside the point.
The number of Peruvians who can buy even pirated copies is very low. Outside of middle class cities, DVD discs, more often VCDs, are traded and watched in large groups so only one has to be bought.
Then there is the fact that many more original DVDs are purchased in countries with similar populations than pirated DVDs will ever be purchased in Peru. The number of DVDs in the US rental system alone will be more than the number purchased in Peru.
Also important to note, and perhaps a topic for a future article, is the fact that movie studios and record labels have been desperate to force people to buy physical disks rather than use more modern distribution methods. Why would I ever need to purchase a disc that costs $1 to make for a price of $10+ when I could pay much less for something beamed to my TV on demand or downloaded. Only now are these dinosaurs waking up to this, but how many pieces of toxic plastic have been produced in the mean time?