Here’s another unlikely addition to that ‘all things wooden’ collection of yours. You will almost definitely make friends and influence people when you strap on these eco friendly earbuds from Skullcandy. Sustainable wood trumps plastic anyday.
these eco audio accessories will run you a somewhat pricey $99 @ urbanoutfitters.com
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Is using wood in a manufacturing process like this actually sustainable or does it just symbolize sustainability?
Since we have no info on how the wood used in the manufacture of the earbuds is grown and harvested we will have to stick with ’symbolic.’ In any case, wood is certainly more sustainable and earth-friendly than plastic.
Not sure it’s that simple.
Often the solution that uses the least amount of material / mass has the least impact regardless of material.
Example “paper vs. plastic”. While plastic bags blowing around the environment are bad for wildlife, if properly disposed of in landfill they don’t have this impact. Plastic bags use little material in comparison to paperbags and depending on how far they are transported this energy use outweighs the benefits of recycling.
Further, its not clear that using wood is in fact a good idea since it can lead to deforestation.
The amount of wood and the volume of prodution of these headphones (100K or so) is likely not to have much impact say compared to the use of disposable wooden chipsticks so perhaps the symobolic value is worth it.