Biodegradable 3D Glasses Will Be Ready On Day One, Oculus Says

Oculus 3D, a supplier to movie theaters of a 3D system that uses 35mm film (CED March 24 p5), is ready to launch that system now, CEO Marty Shindler told us in an e-mail. Oculus is “in active discussions with the various studios to gain their content in our format,” he said. When the system does launch, the 3D glasses with biodegradable frames that Shindler discussed at last week’s ShoWest convention in Las Vegas will be ready on Day One, he said.

Shindler stressed that the frames of the glasses are biodegradable, not the lenses. Still, assuming the average movie release will require 10 million pairs of glasses, the environmental benefit will be enormous compared with glasses made from plastic derived from “traditional fossil fuels,” said Frederic Sheer, CEO of Cereplast, the company that’s supplying the corn-based plastics for the Oculus glasses. A production run of 10 million glasses made from the polylactic acid (PLA)-based resins Cereplast is supplying will reduce CO2 emissions by about 517 metric tons compared with glasses made from fossil fuel-based resins, Sheer said. That equals eliminating the GHG emissions from burning 50,000 gallons of gasoline, he said. To create PLA-based resins, “bacterial fermentation is used” to derive lactic acid from corn starch, Cereplast said.

The estimates on the CO2 savings are conservative, Shindler told us. “Note that 10 million pairs on a global basis is very low,” he said. “As recently as last summer, one movie purchased 12 million pairs of plastic glasses at a time when there were not as many [3D] theaters as there are now and certainly will be in the next year.” Therefore “the stats” on the environmental benefits of the Oculus glasses will be “even more significant” when the system comes to market, he said.

Oculus is sourcing the 3D glasses with biodegradable frames from two suppliers, Shindler said. “One is domestic, the other is offshore,” he said. “We are in discussions with others.” As for how much the glasses will cost, “we are still in the process of finalizing the costs, all of which will be based on volume,” he said. “I suspect it will be 10 to 15 percent more, but am not prepared to commit to a number. I also believe that there is considerable positive PR value to the various studios who are on board with us for the film and the biodegradable glasses.” As for who actually pays for the glasses, the movie distributor or the theater owner, Shindler told us that varies because the business model is “in transition."

It’s impossible to estimate how long it would take the Oculus frames “to biodegrade in an uncontrolled landfill environment,” Cereplast said. “The amount of moisture, temperature and microbes are not controlled in landfills or even backyard composters. Passing ASTM D6400 certification requires a commercial compost that is operated at a specific temperature with the proper moisture content, the correct population of microbes and a time period of 180 days or less."

ASTM D6400 is the standard devised by the American Society for Testing and Materials to determine whether a plastic is compostable. “This specification covers plastics and products made from plastics that are designed to be composted in municipal and industrial aerobic composting facilities,” the ASTM said. “The properties in this specification are those required to determine if plastics and products made from plastics will compost satisfactorily, including biodegrading at a rate comparable to known compostable materials. Further, the properties in the specification are required to assure that the degradation of these materials will not diminish the value or utility of the compost resulting from the composting process.”