At this point it seems unlikely that VHS tapes will experience a resurgence for their superior picture or sound quality, but that’s because they offer neither. Instead, the rapidly obsolete format finds itself regulated to garage sales and curb-sides along with Discmans and copies of The Secret. But where do all these VHS tapes end up?
Despite being made out of mostly recyclable material, the magnetized ribbon of plastic tape inside the VHS is not, which makes recycling them an incredibly tenuous process that needs to be done by hand. Due to each brand of tape being constructed differently (the location of the screws change depending on the make) an automated machine for the purpose of dismantling has proven difficult.
Most people were too lazy to rewind a VHS tape let alone undo the screws, dismantle the metal and unravel the tape. This leads to the usable parts been scrapped rather than preserved, excess technological waste and a horrible reminder of purchasing a movie without bonus features for $19.99.
Fortunately, Toronto social enterprisers Phillip Yan and Graham Lewis of the experiential design firm GenesisXD are working to solve this problem, while simultaneously addressing an even larger one: employment. Project Get Reel, still in the crowdfunding phase, aims to overcome employment barriers faced by new immigrants, mental health patients and those below the poverty line by providing opportunities to dismantle VHS tapes in their workshop at The Learning Enrichment Foundation, a community and social enrichment hub.
“It began a year go when we started talking to the Recycle Council of Ontario,” says Get Reel co-founder Phillip Yan. “There is no recycling facility for VHS anywhere. Recycle Ontario was trying to figure out what to do so they came to us.”
The program is designed to give participants benefits through gaining work experience, networking and access to the language training, career counselling and childcare programs offered by the Learning Enrichment Foundation.
“We expect the company to generate revenue by selling the material back to the recycling plants,” Yan says. “By doing that we’ll eventually be able to hire more people.” Coming off the experience and success of GenesisXD’s prisoner rehabilitation coffee program KLINK, Yan is already well-versed in socially viable business. His next step is finding people fit for the job through partnered social working agencies.
Tossing out your Buffy box set won’t instantly turn you into a charitable donor, and with a budget for only 10 employees, Get Reel has a lot of work ahead of them, but hopefully as word about the program spreads, so too will an awareness for how to properly treat VHS tapes and other disposable technologies.
“We’re trying to make the world greener and also offer employment to people,” Yan says.
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