Preemptive strike! Planning for the ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT of VR

They say that hindsight is 20/20 and it is often associated with the expression “If we only knew then, what we know now”.

A current issue plaguing our society is environmental toxification and ecosystem collapse brought about by a variety of issues; one of which, is plastic pollution. Our Oceans and landfills are contaminated with micro-particles of everlasting toxic pieces of plastic that are the result of our consumer-product based society.

During the industrial growth and product commercialization process our society underwent during the 20th century, had we thought about the “future-life” of our products (their re-use or disposal) when designing electronics and other consumer products, BEFORE mass adoption, our world would be a much cleaner place.

(We also would’ve saved a ton of money and resources)

Virtual Reality is about to hit mass market adoption, and just like with TVs, laptops and cell phones, very soon, world’s garbage system is about to be flooded with VR devices. With each new iteration of the technology, the older models become obsolete. Some day soon, we may find Virtual Reality headsets and lenses floating in our oceans.

How much have we learned from our past mistakes? What steps are we taking to prevent making them again? Are VR headset devices and 360 cameras being designed with reuse in mind? Are the most commonly broken parts easy to replace or repair?. Are they made with recycled materials? Are they Toxi or eco-friendly? Is there a recycling/disposal system being developed hand in hand with the manufacturing and sales process? (at publication few VR repair shops currently exist)

The FUTURE main contributors to the upcoming flood of garbage to hit landfills and oceans over the next decade are Samsung, Facebook, HTC, Oculus, Sony, Intel, Zeiss, Homido and far too many others to mention. Their products are made nearly entirely out of plastic. (Google DayDream is plastic and coated with Denim).

Google’s Cardboard version is a much better approach (environmentally) and is an ideal entry into VR. They are cheap, can be made from recycled paper products and themselves can easily be recycled again. Many other VR manufacturers are taking this route for VR demo units. They are the disposable approach to VR. (their waste is only in packaging, lenses & magnets) Unfortunately after short term use, Cardboard VR experience consumers typically scale up and buy a plastic version. First, a 30–100$ mobile version then later on a 500–1000$ version (PC or Console). The process of transitioning between several models is a recipe for an upcoming ecological disaster.

There is good news. We are discussing this at the right time. Plans can be put in place to adjust the manufacturing process so that products are designed, not with planned obsolescence, but with interchangeable and repairable parts. We can develop and launch (preemptively) some Product-Sharing apps, Repair and Recycling programs, and relationships between manufacturers leading to (ideally) interchangeable parts.

With the right “forward thinking attitude” we can usher-in a new age of technology without accelerating the destruction of the environment upon which we rely.

For more VR/AR/360 articles on the Future of Technology. visit https://medium.com/@ThisIsMeIn360VR