After use, you can mail it in for recycling, or toss it in the trash.

Its makers, Flexplay Technologies Inc., aim to free consumers from the "perceived inconvenience of the current rental process", by making the new "EZ-D" discs available "in places they already shop", it said in a release.

That most likely means at grocery and convenience stores in an as-yet undisclosed region in the United States starting in August, the company said.

The technology will be piloted with entertainment giant The Walt Disney Company's backing, with promised movie titles to include "Frida", "The Recruit" and "25th Hour", it said.

At an estimated price of four to six dollars, the product is targeted at competing directly with the rental video industry.

But critics of the move say it will only add to the mountains of plastic already accumulated from the billions of CDs and DVDs produced in the world every year.

And rental video giant Blockbuster, the world's largest rental video chain, which arguably has most to fear from the innovation, is already predicting EZ-D's demise: "We don't think disposable DVDs make financial sense for the movie studios and we don't think consumers will accept them," it said in a statement.

Other players are keenly interested in the new product as well. General Electric's plastics division will supply all the special material for the new disc.

The patented Lexan plastic has been adapted so the EZ-D will turn from a functioning, bright red DVD to a useless black disc after 48 hours of exposure to oxygen.

Erik van de Grampel, global optical media technology leader at GE Plastics, said of its monopoly on the disc's material: "It could be a very nice business, let's put it like that."

Plans are in the works to take EZ-D abroad, most likely Japan, "within the next five months", Van de Grampel said.

"With GE being a global supplier of materials worldwide, that will help us make this available pretty much anywhere."

Therein lies the key problem, critics say. Lexan polycarbonates contain phosgene and biphenol A, both toxic chemicals.

Phosgene was used as a chemical weapon in World War I, killing by pulmonary edema, while Bisphenol A is an endocrine disruptor, which can promote the growth of certain types of cancer, said Ruth Stringer a senior scientist at the Greenpeace Research Laboratories and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter in Britain.

"A system that generates one waste DVD, plus all the manufacturing wastes, plus all the transport fuel consumption, and packaging, et cetera every time you watch a film is clearly going to increase waste and pollution," she said in an email.

Van de Grampel said phosgene is never broken down in the plastic and thus never escapes "to the outside world" while bisphenol A levels are "almost non-detectable".

In any event, Flexplay has contracted Greendisk, a Redmond, Washington-based firm that will recycle used EZ-D disks that are mailed in during the pilot.

Greendisk President David Geschen argued that the cost of the stamp is probably less than that of the gasoline spent driving to the video store to make a return.

But he acknowledged consumers' temptation for the ultimate convenience: the trash bin.

"The ultimate convenience would be just to throw it out, but there's just a huge indication from market research that says people do want to do the right thing environmentally and will, given the resources to do so."

SPACE.WIRE