Can CDs Be Recycled?

An anonymous reader asks: "I was recently doing a closet-cleaning and came across literally hundreds of old software CDs that are no longer usable — both manufactured CDs and CD-Rs. Note that by 'not usable', I mean that many of them simply couldn't be read anymore, possibly due to the fact that they'd been stored rather ineptly (no, I wasn't responsible for how they were stored). It seems wrong to just throw them out, but are there other things that can be done with them that will allow their raw materials to be reused in some way?Is it possible to reclaim CDs for raw materials?"

They make great coasters

[QuantumG]

and if you're drunk, try goin' at one with a metal file and making ninja stars.

Yes!

[rlp]

But only if they're RW.

NINJA STAR CDs

[rustalot42684]

It would be cool if thinkgeek or someone made cds that were 120mm wide, but they only used the 1st 80mm, like mini cds, and they had 20mm ninja star spikes or something. That may you could store your top secret ninja plans and kill pirates at the SAME TIME!

Future archeology

[sakdoctor]

Maybe the CDs are unreadable now, but who knows in the future. Future archaeologists may one day discover the thick fossilized layer of AOL trial CDs that we have deposited and somehow be able extract the data, or even use them to fuel their flying cars.

Re:NINJA STAR CDs

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

It would be cool if thinkgeek or someone made cds that were 120mm wide, but they only used the 1st 80mm, like mini cds, and they had 20mm ninja star spikes or something. That may you could store your top secret ninja plans and kill pirates at the SAME TIME!

Yeah, just don't use them in a 52x CD reader or the CD will fracture and the spikes will fly off and take off everybody's kneecaps.

...unless that was the plan all along. Touché /.ninja, touché.

Re:NINJA STAR CDs

[east coast]

Yeah, just don't use them in a 52x CD reader or the CD will fracture and the spikes will fly off and take off everybody's kneecaps.

Would you consider that "defective by design" or a hidden "feature" of the disc?

I would think it very useful in the right situation. Is anyone filming a new James Bomd film?

Re:Dunno about Europe.

[Bloke down the pub]

It annoys me so much that in a little flat country such as Denmark we can't figure out how to sort our waste

Maybe you could drop it in the sea, or pile it all up somewhere into a kind of artificial hill? Then at least your country would be a little less little and a little less flat.

Re:well-balanced throwing star

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

Depends on the type of throwing star I guess. I immediately envisaged a six-pointed hira shuriken [wikipedia.org] where the thin "necks" would be highly vulnerable. I guess with four-points it probably wouldn't be an issue.

Oh God am I really having a serious conversation about the structural integrity of throwing-star shaped CDs?