EARTHDRIVE

Corn Fed

EarthDrive is what the manufacturer calls this USB drive, and the name fits: It’s the world’s first recyclable USB drive with a housing made from polyactic acid (PLA) materials such as corn. Plastic from petroleum is the main ingredient in conventional housings, and USB drives (aka thumb drives) are replacing other portable storage media such as CDs and floppy disks. As storage memories grow exponentially, what is likely to be done with yesteryear’s tiny 256 MB thumb drive? It probably gets tossed. Consequently, discarded traditional USB drives end up in landfills, where they will languish for many years. The EarthDrive is designed knowing that the day will come when it will be obsolete and expendable. Until then, EarthDrives are waterproof, shockproof, and dustproof. ATP offers models ranging from 1 GB to 8 GB. About $26 currently buys a 2 GB drive, which is plenty to hold PowerPoint presentations, photo albums, and many hours of music.