VINYL

Vinyl is most often made from a fossil-fuel synthetic compound, commonly known as PVC. Described as the “poison plastic” by Greenpeace, vinyl is short for ‘polyvinyl chloride and is made by combining a range of fossil-fuel-based toxic chemicals and additives. Many old vinyl records even used to contain lead.

Rarely recycled, it’s most often down-cycled into lesser grade plastic products. Most PVC products end up in landfill, releasing toxins into the landscape.

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

Manufacturers, pressing plants and labels are starting to find alternative compounds to virgin PVC. While many of these options are still emerging in different markets, there are some options with a smaller impact:

1. Bio-Vinyl: A PVC compound that uses recycled cooking oil instead of fossil-fuel oil. There are many different options for this oil with different quality levels. Research has found this can reduce the impact of your entire vinyl record manufacturing by 44%
2. Bioplastic Vinyl: Several manufacturers, including Evolution Music, have developed a plant-based bioplastic alternative made from materials like corn starch. The product isn’t widely available yet, but has been used by our friends at Music Declares Emergency.
3. Polyethylene (PET) Record (Injection Mould): Other manufacturers, like Sonopress, are trialling a new form of record-making which injects PET plastic (found in plastic bottles) into a moulded template. It can reduce emissions from manufacture by up to 85%. The product is in early stages of development and isn’t available commercially yet, so watch this space.

What about recycled vinyl?

Recycled vinyl, also known as regrind, is most often made up of offcuts leftover from the virgin PVC at pressing plants - meaning it’s a ‘pre-consumer’ product. While it’s better than virgin plastic, keeping offcuts from landfill, the compound itself is the same.

‘Post-consumer’ products (used records put back in the manufacturing stream) are a better option, but old records are often hard to recycle because of the additives mixed with the PVC.

Before you press with your manufacturer, ask if their regrind is ‘pre-consumer’ (i.e offcuts from the factory floor) or ‘post-consumer’ (made from PVC that has already been used at least once). Post-consumer is the better option when possible.

180 gram or 140 gram?

There’s loads of debate on whether heavier records have better sound quality. The short of it is that the difference isn’t noticeable to the vast majority of average fans. The stamper and grooves indented into both records are the same. And while 180 gram vinyl might reduce micro-movements on stereo systems, it’s only noticeable on very high quality stereo systems.

To immediately reduce the impact of your LP, avoid pressing on 180 gram releases. Not only does it create 40 grams more plastic per record, they’re also heavier to ship — leading to higher transport emissions and shipping costs.

Local Manufacture

Lots of vinyl (around 60-80%) is air-freighted into Australia. That has some pretty bad environmental consequences, with air-freighting a record into the country generating around five times more carbon emissions than it takes to manufacture the vinyl itself.

So one way to reduce your impact is to manufacture close to where you will sell most of your records. For example, if you sell most of your vinyl in Australia, press them locally at Program Records, Suitcase Records or Zenith Records. You’ll not only significantly reduce your emissions, you’ll likely pay lower freight costs too. If you have to press overseas, investigate sea-freight as an alternative. Just plan ahead, because it may take longer for stock to arrive in the country.

Some vinyl record sellers give the impression that they press locally. Often these companies are actually brokers who organise manufacturing overseas, so make sure you ask specifically where in the world your vinyl will be pressed.

Print what you need

Make sure you don’t press more than you need. This can be tricky if pressing plants have minimum quantities, but remember that extra records that aren’t sold will just gather dust in storage - or under your bed - and cause all that environmental impact for nothing.

Ahead of your next release, consider asking the following questions to your manufacturer or label:

• Are we manufacturing only what we need?
• Are we manufacturing locally to reduce freight distance?
• Can we press on Bio Vinyl?
• Are we manufacturing 140g vinyl?
• Can we manufacture with a standard sleeve?
• Can my CD be manufactured on Softpak?
• Can we avoid Air Freight when shipping this product?
• Can we eliminate plastic shrink wrap on any or all of our copies?
• What alternatives to plastic can we use?
• Can we avoid plastic, and use recycled or FSC Paper?

WHAT ABOUT STREAMING?

Over time, we’ve seen a shift away from physical music formats in favour of digital download and streaming services. On the surface, this shift feels clean, efficient and waste free. But is it the best option?

As mentioned in our Business, Office & Studio chapter, using the internet has all the impacts of energy production for digital data storage and transmission.

To sum it up, digital downloads, like saving an album to your device, are the greenest way to share and enjoy music - especially for those albums you’ll listen to on repeat. For your favourite albums, digital downloads tend to be the most eco-friendly way to enjoy music, followed by physical products. For more casual listening, streaming is best, as long as you don’t play an album more than 27 times (in that case, you would have been best to download it or, next best, buy a physical version).

CRYPTOCURRENCIES & NFTs

In 2021, musical artist Grimes sold several videos for $6 million. She did it using NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), which are basically a way of proving unique ownership of digital content so it can be bought and sold. Will they have a big impact on our lives? Time will tell. For now there’s enough interest – and confusion – for us to share some advice here about their (notable) environmental impacts. 

Environmentally, right now, most NFTs look pretty bad. Just like cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin) NFTs verify transactions on the blockchain (like an electronic record book) with the use of massive networks of computers, solving a cryptographic puzzle via a process called ‘Proof of Work’. As the name suggests, it requires extreme amounts of computer processing work which chews up loads and loads of energy.

Given the state of our planet, Proof of Work should probably be illegal. Indeed, some artists are refusing to engage on that basis. Even if you green a process like this with renewable energy (or offsets), you’re still massively increasing the amount of energy our society needs, making the transition to a greener future much harder. Not good.

Thankfully, there’s some hope. Some NFT platforms are switching to a greener method: ‘Proof of Stake’. If you make one decision in this space, make sure the blockchain your trades are registered on uses Proof of Stake.

And if you do monetise your work with NFTs, think carefully about what you offer along with the digital ‘product’. For now, artists often share a bundle attached to an NFT, which might be made up of a unique image (or movie, like Grimes) plus a collection of stuff. Some tech experts suggest the power of NFTs is not so much about the digital asset itself, but about the connections and relationships you're building via this bundle of stuff. The greenest way to do that is to focus on bundling experiences (a ticket to every future show in their hometown, a personal video call, a house concert when you’re in their region, an invite to join you at a political rally or at an online gathering, or some other form of access to you and your broader community) rather than a bunch of unethical or impractical physical products. 

We shape the world with the choices we make. And artists shape people’s sense of what is normal by what we put out there. Consider the necessity of involving yourself with energy-intensive NFTs at all. And if you do engage, go as green as you can and avoid materialism at all costs.

For more on the topic, see these articles via The Guardian, Medium and The Atlantic. 

WHAT NEXT

These are all good actions that align our lives better with the needs of Country. But as environmental activist Bill McKibben says, “the most important thing an individual can do, is be less of an individual”. Systemic and collective change is what’s needed if we’re to avert climate catastrophe. So while we’re improving our personal footprint, we also need to push for collective, political change.

Talk about why you’re choosing to green your music releases with your fans. Advocate for greater support to help vinyl manufacturers implement sustainable initiatives. Your voice is the most powerful tool you’ve got. See Speaking Up for our suggestions on how to use it well. Or get in touch if you want to get more involved in the Green Music movement.