Blockbuster vs. Netflix: What is Greener?

If you are constantly examining your daily routines in search of ways to be slightly more environmentally friendly, you've probably wondered whether your Netflix account is greener than picking up a video from Blockbuster. Well apparently you're not alone because a Slate.com reader posed the same query to the Green Lantern, Jacob Leibenluft.

"The two methods of renting a DVD are only substantively different at the very end, when the disc travels to your doorstep. The Netflix DVD may be transported back and forth over much greater distances than the one from the local video store. But it's part of a much larger delivery in the back of a mail truck—and that reduces its environmental impact."

"...even just a two-mile drive to the video store will consume a few hundred times more energy than the Netflix delivery from a distribution center 200 miles away."

"Packaging accounts for another chunk of the difference between renting online or from the video store. It takes a significant amount of energy to make the lockable polypropylene case that you might get at a video store..."

"So remember: It's not just how far something travels that matters. It's the route it takes to get there."

To read the full Slate Green Lantern article, click HERE.