Case-Mate Offers iPhone Cases Made From Recycled Plastic

2 Replies · May 9, 2012

Pakaku said:
Recycling is always a good thing.

Not at $30 a bottle it isn't.
Even AT COST it's still questionable.

No matter how "friendly" they make theirs out to be, they still need to use energy and chemicals to process the plastic back to a usable form. And those colors aren't natural either, so there's more chemicals added.

Not be sound confrontational, but you know what is a MORE environmentally friendly case?
No case at all.

(Or if you must... make your own recession case.)

iHateMacs · May 9, 2012

I'm not into recycling.

If the ad said One Polar Bear = One Case and the case looked nice and fury then I would have one for $30.

jlevi · May 10, 2012

This is how I know that none of you have ever run a business. None of you have ever heard of overhead costs.

Yeah, you can buy a case for $3 on eBay, and it might (but probably won't) even have decent quality, but it costs money to run a company where you hire american people to staff your call center, warehouses, design department, etc.

$30 is definitely a little steep, but it costs money to run companies, it costs money to give customers solid service, and it costs money to create products.

As for those of you criticizing it as being a gimmick, lighten up. They saw an opportunity to do something good by producing less waste, and were able to probably get cheaper materials by doing so. People are going to buy cases either way, so why not give them an option to do it with recycled materials? I wouldn't be surprised if they start making more and more cases from rPET.

Get real, guys. A company has no obligation to be environmentally friendly, so when they find a way to do so in a profitable fashion, you should commend them.

If you keep criticizing these businesses for making more environmentally conscious decisions, they will stop making them. And then we'll have another generation of businesses that pollute because they think the customer doesn't care.

Wake up and figure out how the real world works.
JL

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sandys101 said:
I am pretty Sure these ones are from the useless cases made for iPhone 5

That would be silly. I guarantee they're waiting to see if the next iPhone maybe meets that spec.

urbanlung · May 10, 2012

I know what...

Stop buying water in bottles. At least here in the UK tap water is perfectly fine for drinking and most employers have water coolers for when your at work. Bottled water is one of the most pointless environmentally damaging products that people buy discretionarily. Fine if you need a drink when there is no other source but otherwise expensive and stupid. Oh and if your wondering, I've made my iphone case out of organic tofu and mung beans.

CashDude · May 10, 2012

I bought a T-shirt made from recycled PET bottles for the same price.

This is a total rip-off IMO.

craznar · May 10, 2012

I think more people would buy it, if the final case still looked vaguely like the bottle.

Sort of a distorted squashed bottle ... complete with a removable blue cap on top

2 Replies · May 10, 2012

craznar said:
I think more people would buy it, if the final case still looked vaguely like the bottle.

Sort of a distorted squashed bottle ... complete with a removable blue cap on top

That would be pretty cool and artsy.

jlevi said:
As for those of you criticizing it as being a gimmick, lighten up. They saw an opportunity to do something good by producing less waste, and were able to probably get cheaper materials by doing so. People are going to buy cases either way, so why not give them an option to do it with recycled materials? I wouldn't be surprised if they start making more and more cases from rPET.

Get real, guys. A company has no obligation to be environmentally friendly, so when they find a way to do so in a profitable fashion, you should commend them.

If you keep criticizing these businesses for making more environmentally conscious decisions, they will stop making them. And then we'll have another generation of businesses that pollute because they think the customer doesn't care.

No one is claiming they should be GIVING these things away.
But Case-Mate has been in the case making market for years. They already have all the overhead covered and done through their MANY other cases. I also suspect they're probably using an existing mould for this case which would mean there'd no special design here, nor any overhead (it's a pretty bland and plain case). So $30 is in no way justifiable even in a business sense. Case-mate has the process and everything already in place to be able to make them for FAR less.

And the thing is, THEY are the ones making it into a gimmick.
Using recycled plastic is NOTHING new, and not uncommon. It's been done for decades, but they're the ones who are using it as if they're performing some magic that no one else has EVER done. Other companies have and do use recycled plastic, but do MORE than just mold it into a boring plain case.
Worse yet, Case-Mate USED to offer an actually UNIQUE, even more environmentally friendly, more recyclable, CHEAPER cardboard case but they stopped offering it before they released this one.
(Google recession case)

jlevi said:
That would be silly.

... that was the point. To be silly. :-|

3282868 · May 10, 2012

urbanlung said:
Stop buying water in bottles. At least here in the UK tap water is perfectly fine for drinking and most employers have water coolers for when your at work. Bottled water is one of the most pointless environmentally damaging products that people buy discretionarily.

Spot on. Recycling plastic creates more pollution that it eradicates. The solution: don't use plastic, or in the least use less. I bring my own coffee jugs with me to Starbucks, they give you a discount (most places do if you hate Starbucks, but they've been proven to be very eco-friendly and support small businesses, even helping competing small business coffee houses).

We have so much plastic waste, there are two large masses of plastic "islands" the size of Texas created by the oceanic belt; one in the North Pacific and the other in the Indian Ocean. So much plastic spills out from India daily it's sickening. Google and read on the issue, it's quite depressing. Even if we could clean it up, it would take billions of dollars and decades of work. Human beings are the only creatures on the planet that create waste that is not naturally biodegradable. San Francisco just passed a law that mandates residents use a compost bin, and most large cities in the U.S. ticket buildings that don't recycle. There are naturally biodegradable plastics but businesses aren't investing to cut costs (costs would eventually lower if they did, I guess saving $.01 per item is more important). As consumers, we need to educate ourselves and make the right decisions.

I attached an image of a man "rowing" through one such mass of plastic.

isdmd10 · May 10, 2012

pensoftware said:
There's so much more that goes behind just raw hardware parts. Melting plastic and molding it into a case doesn't cost $29.95 per case.

...and shipping, design, marketing, sales, packaging, research, development, taxes, payroll, administrative fees...and then you have to find room for the most important part, profit!

justperry · May 10, 2012

Just sad how many Americans think about recycling and just dump material which can be recycled.

bedifferent said:
Spot on. Recycling plastic creates more pollution that it eradicates. The solution: don't use plastic, or in the least use less. I bring my own coffee jugs with me to Starbucks, they give you a discount (most places do if you hate Starbucks, but they've been proven to be very eco-friendly and support small businesses, even helping competing small business coffee houses).

We have so much plastic waste, there are two large masses of plastic "islands" the size of Texas created by the oceanic belt; one in the North Pacific and the other in the Indian Ocean. So much plastic spills out from India daily it's sickening. Google and read on the issue, it's quite depressing. Even if we could clean it up, it would take billions of dollars and decades of work. Human beings are the only creatures on the planet that create waste that is not naturally biodegradable. San Francisco just passed a law that mandates residents use a compost bin, and most large cities in the U.S. ticket buildings that don't recycle. There are naturally biodegradable plastics but businesses aren't investing to cut costs (costs would eventually lower if they did, I guess saving $.01 per item is more important). As consumers, we need to educate ourselves and make the right decisions.

I attached an image of a man "rowing" through one such mass of plastic.

Very good points.
Asia is by far the biggest polluter of plastics, I live in Indonesia and although it's getting better people still use a lot of plastic bags and throw them on the streets which then gets washed down by rain and ends up in the oceans.
The problem here is that garbage collection (too expensive for poor people) is almost non existent and most of it is burned (taught in schools).
Another problem is, plastic is cheap and much easier than Palm leaves for instance, palm leaves where used to package food but at soon as plastics arrived and where convenient and cheap it changed peoples behavior.
You get a plastic bag with any purchase even something as small as 10 cents, or when you buy a bottle of coke it's poured into a plastic bag, wrap around a elastic band and add a straw, when empty it's thrown on the street.
And yes, water bottles is another big problem here, they even have one's that are only like 10 Ml, what a waste.

Most of Asia it's the same wasteful behavior.

urbanlung · May 10, 2012

bedifferent said:
Spot on. Recycling plastic creates more pollution that it eradicates. The solution: don't use plastic, or in the least use less. I bring my own coffee jugs with me to Starbucks, they give you a discount (most places do if you hate Starbucks, but they've been proven to be very eco-friendly and support small businesses, even helping competing small business coffee houses).

We have so much plastic waste, there are two large masses of plastic "islands" the size of Texas created by the oceanic belt; one in the North Pacific and the other in the Indian Ocean. So much plastic spills out from India daily it's sickening. Google and read on the issue, it's quite depressing. Even if we could clean it up, it would take billions of dollars and decades of work. Human beings are the only creatures on the planet that create waste that is not naturally biodegradable. San Francisco just passed a law that mandates residents use a compost bin, and most large cities in the U.S. ticket buildings that don't recycle. There are naturally biodegradable plastics but businesses aren't investing to cut costs (costs would eventually lower if they did, I guess saving $.01 per item is more important). As consumers, we need to educate ourselves and make the right decisions.

I attached an image of a man "rowing" through one such mass of plastic.

And furthermore what about all the sweets that are come in plastic dispensers that provide nothing but a gimmick. There is way to much packaging in all sorts of entail but especialy consumables like food sweets and cosmetics. Don't get me started on cosmetics aaargh!

3282868 · May 10, 2012

urbanlung said:
And furthermore what about all the sweets that are come in plastic dispensers that provide nothing but a gimmick. There is way to much packaging in all sorts of entail but especialy consumables like food sweets and cosmetics. Don't get me started on cosmetics aaargh!

You and justperry have excellent points. When I think about the extraneous packaging I remember that old HBO show "Not Necessarily the News". They did a skit on cellophane sticking to your hands, and never coming off. Was hilarious.

Any ways, yes, when it comes down to it, businesses cut costs and go for plastic as it's cheaper. I use glass whenever I can, especially with food containers, and bring reusable bags for groceries. I hate the thick, hard package shells that hold HDMI cables and such. Supposed to be an anti-theft deterrent, but it's a major waste and a PITA to open. When you need a jigsaw to open a package, something's not right

.

It'd be nice if tax breaks were given to companies that used less plastic if at all in their product packaging, or if laws were in place to limit how much plastic is used.

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Case-Mate Offers iPhone Cases Made From Recycled Plastic

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