Recycling old DV Tapes (trash recycle!)
 

Does anubody know what I can do with my mountain of used mini-DV tapes?

I would rather not throw them away, but can not find any recycle place that lists tapes.

Thanks

I've never even considered throwing mine away. I have every tape I've ever shot in storage. I'm planning on keeping them pretty much forever.

In the UK there's CVA as one example (a google search throws up others) and this gives some of the detail behind the recycling - The Science Of Video Tape Recycling - Creative Video Associates (CVA) - for recycling, used and new video tape .

Generally, they are MORE reliable than new, the evaluation process discards any with faults, and the ones that pass have been positively evaluated as good.

Thanks for the link.

Are there any places in the US that would take the tapes for recycling?

I don't need them back, just trying not to put them into a landfill.

sell 'em on eBay... run a bulk tape erase if there's any incriminating stuff <wink>, otherwise "one pass" recorded tapes still bring decent $$. A buck to a buck and a half per tape last time I was some listed.

newbie question
 

Do you use a tape for one shoot, or do you re use? If re use, how many times seems to be average?

Thanks.

Just wanted to refresh this thread and see if anyone knows of a place to take tapes to be recycled in the US? I'd rather not see my mountain of now obsolete VHS tapes end up in a landfill.

Not an actual reply with useful information - but I applaud your spirit.

I did an article for Videomaker years back about fun tape facts and one of them was that at the peak of VHS production - enough VHS tape was manufactured wordwide in one year (1999?) to reach from the earth to the moon and back something like six and a half times.

Yikes!

You can donate them to GreenDisk. The tapes will be degaussed and provided to local police and other civic and governmental organizations for use in surveillance systems.

If you're looking for a place that will take your video tapes and recycle them into plastic bottles and playground equipment - you would be more ecologically friendly to throw them in the trash. Recycling a complex multi-material product like a video tape is cost prohibitive and consumes far more energy and resources than simply making them from new materials.