Time will tell if these new methods will yield quality results, but even then, studios and musicians are thinking creatively. Separately, businesses are exploring HD vinyl cut by laser (versus lacquer) and innovative 3D printing. Green Vinyl Records, consisting of eight different Dutch companies, has been perfecting an eco-friendly production process that reduces energy use and waste by 60 percent. In recent years, environmentalists, musicians, and record companies alike are re-imagining both the process and the products. In contrast, once a vinyl has been produced, the ongoing impact is minimal.īut the times, they are a-changin’ when it comes to sustainable records. To some extent, high-quality records can be recycled into other albums.Īnd if you’re thinking that digital streaming is the only green way to go, consider this as well: The amount of energy needed to store, retrieve, and play billions of digital songs throughout one day is already tolling on our environmental footprint. They’re often purchased and kept over decades to build collections, upcycled into art pieces, or donated to charities and secondhand shops. The good news is that vinyl records are rarely thrown away in comparison to other plastic goods. The production process is hard on the environment too, typically requiring fossil fuels, anti-corrosive chemicals to prevent rusting, and plastic-based packaging. Most records are made with PVC (aka plastic), which we already know takes hundreds of years to decompose. But today, when you can open Spotify to instantly source music to match your mood, weather, or even intimacy level, it’s worth considering the long-term ethics. If you, too, are hoping to get your hands on some old-school vinyl and a vintage record player, you’re in the right place.īut first, there’s no sugarcoating it: The materials and production of vinyl aren’t exactly sustainable.īack when vinyl was the only real source for in-home entertainment, being green wasn’t necessarily top of mind after all, Edison invented the first-ever record back in the 1880s. And sales increased almost 30 percent in 2020, raking in a massive $620,000,000. In 2019, vinyls were poised to outsell CDs (remember those?) for the first time since 1986. It seems I'm not alone in preferring records over streaming.
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