How many trees must die for iWave's Earth-friendly headphones, iPhone cases? (update)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted July 29th 2010 4:23PM
posted July 29th 2010 4:23PM
We're not experts or anything, but cutting down trees to manufacture your headphones ($30), ear buds ($20), and iPhone cases ($25) does not really seem all that "green" to us. But what good is selling stuff made from "reusable, environmentally friendly and recyclable materials" if you can't broadcast your sense of social responsibility with "rustic wood grain finishes and smooth earthy tones" that "mirror the true beauty that surrounds us?" Is we right, or is we right? The Grass Roots Collection (get it?) starts shipping August 1st. PR after the break.
Update: A rep from iWave just sent in an email to assure us that no trees whatsoever were harmed in the making of the Grass Roots collection. We just want to take this opportunity to set the record straight -- and to point out that the Earth in the above illustration reminds us of a Chia Pet. Thanks!
Update: A rep from iWave just sent in an email to assure us that no trees whatsoever were harmed in the making of the Grass Roots collection. We just want to take this opportunity to set the record straight -- and to point out that the Earth in the above illustration reminds us of a Chia Pet. Thanks!
iWave Shipping Eco-Friendly Grass Roots Collection to Retailers Nationwide Starting August 1st
Design- and eco-conscious electronic accessories combine passion for the environment, fashion and technology into one rustic stylish collection
New York, NY (July 29, 2010) – iWave Audio, designers of trend setting electronic accessories, announces the availability of product from its much-anticipated eco-friendly Grass Roots Collection at retailers nationwide beginning August 1st 2010.
Consumers can feel even better about their electronic accessories by purchasing products with the "green lifestyle" in mind. Through this new Collection, customers are offered a selection of "popular priced" and "affordable" accessory options which include: headphones, ear buds and cases for the iPhone/iPod - all made from reusable, environmentally friendly and recyclable materials. Even the innovative egg crate designed packaging is manufactured from completely recyclable materials.
"It is our social responsibility at iWave to offer our loyal customers a greener solution to personal technology accessories, without sacrificing stylish aesthetics to do so" said Joe Setton, iWave. "We wanted the rustic wood grain finishes and smooth earthy tones of the Grass Roots Collection to mirror the true beauty that surrounds us."
The Grass Roots Collection, shipping to stores and online retailers starting August 1st, will include iPhone/iPod cases ($24.99 MSRP), ear buds ($19.99 MSRP) and headphones ($29.99 MSRP). Look for the complete line at: Neiman Marcus, Microcenter, FYE and Tekserve, and other retailers nationwide. Also available online at: neimanmarcus.com and myGearStore.com. Internationally available at select Apple Stores in Europe
For more information on these and other iWave accessories, please contact PR representative Jenny Coleman at jennycoleman@maxborgesagency.com or 305-576-1171 ext. 24.
Design- and eco-conscious electronic accessories combine passion for the environment, fashion and technology into one rustic stylish collection
New York, NY (July 29, 2010) – iWave Audio, designers of trend setting electronic accessories, announces the availability of product from its much-anticipated eco-friendly Grass Roots Collection at retailers nationwide beginning August 1st 2010.
Consumers can feel even better about their electronic accessories by purchasing products with the "green lifestyle" in mind. Through this new Collection, customers are offered a selection of "popular priced" and "affordable" accessory options which include: headphones, ear buds and cases for the iPhone/iPod - all made from reusable, environmentally friendly and recyclable materials. Even the innovative egg crate designed packaging is manufactured from completely recyclable materials.
"It is our social responsibility at iWave to offer our loyal customers a greener solution to personal technology accessories, without sacrificing stylish aesthetics to do so" said Joe Setton, iWave. "We wanted the rustic wood grain finishes and smooth earthy tones of the Grass Roots Collection to mirror the true beauty that surrounds us."
The Grass Roots Collection, shipping to stores and online retailers starting August 1st, will include iPhone/iPod cases ($24.99 MSRP), ear buds ($19.99 MSRP) and headphones ($29.99 MSRP). Look for the complete line at: Neiman Marcus, Microcenter, FYE and Tekserve, and other retailers nationwide. Also available online at: neimanmarcus.com and myGearStore.com. Internationally available at select Apple Stores in Europe
For more information on these and other iWave accessories, please contact PR representative Jenny Coleman at jennycoleman@maxborgesagency.com or 305-576-1171 ext. 24.
@alangerow
Shh...get out of here with your facts and research...!
No one wants to hear that, they only want to hear about the polar bears dying, Al gore, and how we're fucking up the planet and it's all our fault!
using trees for headphones. That sure is good for our environment
@Lucas
Yeah but you get a very wooden sound.
I am not sure that " if you can't broadcast your sense of social responsibility with " really constitutes being green when you buy products.
I rather feel that it has more to do with making changes to one's lifestyle that will deplete the planet's resources somewhat less.
Anyone think of just hitting up their PR company?
"For more information on these and other iWave accessories, please contact PR representative Jenny Coleman at jennycoleman@maxborgesagency.com or 305-576-1171 ext. 24."
@giulio So, what did they say? Oh, you wan't me to do it...
@felipedeeznuts No reply yet but its after 5pm here. I live in the same city as their PR company, Miami.
@giulio Here's the email I got back - "They are made from recycled materials…no trees were cut down to produce these products. I have already been in contact with the writer to edit the post.
Thanks!
Jenny"
Ever think they're using Bamboo?
Plastic never goes away. It's not biodegradable. Let's face it most people don't recycle. Trees (wood) are very easy to replace. Just plant one for every one you cut down. It's not the best scenario but it's better than plastic. To make plastic you lots of chemicals and the process makes lots of pollution. Not to mention wood usually makes a better sounding enclosure for speakers than plastic.
OH SCARY! We will all die in five years if something isn't done! Trees must be hugged, not planted to produce goods!
More green ecoshit.
TEAR THEM DOWN!
Who needs trees anyway! Pesky things full of bugs!
I hate this eco-green nonsense!
Yes, humans benefit from trees but common this planet is capable of taking care of it self. Only humans are STUPID enough to think that without our action this planet of 2,500,000,000 years will cease to exist in a number of years XD
@DrScope
Yes, because someone clearly stated that making headphones from plastic will cause the planet to be utterly destroyed.
Strawman much?
Uninhabitable biosphere =/ "this planet of 2,500,000,000 years will cease to exist."
When people talk about "saving the planet" (and seriously, only dimwitted ideological hippies talk like that any more), what they mean is "preserving the ability of our species to survive on the planet."
We have no tool at out disposal to destroy the planet, but we sure as Hell are capable of making it thoroughly uninhabitable.
"Green" is a marketing term for "sustainability", which is often misused. Someone here was correct when they said the "Green" movement was akin to religion. A lot of people are buying into the marketing, and don't know much about what it means to be sustainable.
Plastics can be sustainable as well. Basically it means that a product or service is produced without damaging the ecosystem/ in balance with it. This has more to do with manufacturing techniques than it does public consumption, although without the public recycling and re-using the produced materials as intended, it can hardly live up to the promise of being sustainable.
Petroleum products do not = BAD all the time. Plastics are making medical breakthroughs possible, among other magical things happening with how humans communicate (all of us here know what I'm talking about). The BAD comes from the fact that it costs lots of money to be fully sustainable, as the companies that manufacture products often have to build their resources from the ground up initially. Some products would/ could never be sustainable because the materials are impossible to separate for recycling (called 'monstrous hybrids').
It's by no means a cut-and-dry subject, there are a lot of conditions and hurdles that have to be met and/ or overcome, and to various degrees. I for one think that we'll never be completely sustainable. Ever. But we can at least minimize our impact (some of the time), and less impact is certainly better than accelerated impact.
@JayMS
Actually plastics, at least petroleum-based one (which is the vast majority of all plastics produced today) can NEVER be sustainable. That is because we have already used roughly 1/2 of all the available oil, and this will one day be all gone - hence, not sustainable.
@Schmitty338 You're confusing sustainability with renewability. Two separate and entirely different concepts in terms of environmental impact.
@Schmitty338 you can actually make plastic polymers from organic sources, just costs more.
@Schmitty338 Oh, I see! You have discovered ALL OF THE OIL! That's the only way that you could possibly guess that half of it is gone.
Forget the fact that we are sitting on a larger quantity of known oil than thirty years ago, otherwise your proclamation about 'peak oil' would sound like looney tunes!
@The Incredible Mr Coco Pants
Sigh....
It's all about statistics. You can extrapolate curve for new oil discovery over time to estimate the total amount of recoverable oil left. For example, in the 20s, new oil wells were being found left right and centre...the rate increased for a few decades and now it is getting significantly slower. It's not that we aren't looking - we are looking harder than ever, yet finding less new oil than ever before. The conclusion? There is very little oil left to be discovered and the current wells we have will only last about a century if we are lucky - and the oil left is much much harder to get than ever before.
@Schmitty338 Last I heard we were sitting on 300 years of fuel right here in America alone, but because of environmental (political) concerns we are not allowed to drill. Heck, there's a lot of oil directly off our coast (in shallow water), but we're not allowed to drill for it. IT'S RIGHT THERE. We aren't running out of oil, but a certain political faction would certainly benefit from making people THINK that we are -- by creating a false crisis (by order thousands of oil drilling platforms to stop drilling).
The "Green" movement is buried in politics and marketing. It's more akin to a religion than it is ACTUAL environmental responsibility. It's another political tool to get votes. Unfortunately a lot of people buy into it completely.
@JayMS
300 years of coal, yes, but definitely not 300 years of ECONOMICALLY VIABLE oil....
@JayMS
You heard that from a chain email that has been making the rounds for about 4 years, and which is utterly factually inaccurate. Argument fail.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/bakken.asp
"Is we right, or is we right?"
heh. no, turns out you're wrong. sorry engadget.
actually building products out of plantation wood is a very green way of making any product to be honest. Its renewable and while it grows the trees are carbon sink. Also the production of plantation wood needs little if any energy and is a no brainer to recycle (it rots naturally). If you look at plastic or metal consumer products all through the production process it is producing tons of pollution and in general isn't a renewable resource (yes you can recycle but you have to mix in some new materials or it doesn't work well).
@MrLinux Thank goodness - at least one other person hasn't had their brains sucked out by the new Green(Red) movement. I wish we would see a renewal of the Conservationist mentality and a destruction of this mindless environmental crazy movement.
Another time when harvesting is actually beneficial to the environment is hunting. Ooooooo, listen to the enviro-nuts, go crazy now.
I bet you these bitches won't sound like Grados. Mmmm, mahogany
Wait, why do they have an on/off switch on the earbud? WTF?
@pika2000 That's for when you want to look like you are listening to music, so you can ignore someone. I like to do it when a Greenie starts ranting about how "wood is murder!"
Products that use exorbinant amounts of trees to produce are usually created from tree farms that are grown for that specific purpose. It's not like they are going into backyards to harvest your maple tree...they plant forests worth of trees to harvest, then plant again.
@Thedude983
This is not true...people don't seem to realize that the majority of paper products are still made from virgin, old-growth forest, i.e. rainforests in south america that are dwindling fast.