Vinyl records were once discarded as relics. First, it has been replaced by (supposedly) glossy compact discs that offer better sound. Then streaming became mainstream, allowing fans to take their vast music collections with them wherever they went.
Record sales have improved in recent years. In 2022, vinyl sales will exceed CDs in the United States for the first time since 1987, with more than 41 million records sold. More and more music artists are releasing LPs, including pop music’s undisputed ruler Taylor Swift. Swift set the standard by releasing multiple pressings of his albums in different colors, and Swifties scrambled to collect them all.
For people of a certain age, the vinyl revival evokes nostalgia, and new generations listen to vinyl’s warm, clear sound. But now he is in the 21st century, the era of climate change. New fans of vinyl want to know what impact all these records have on the environment.
“As the record boom has accelerated in recent years, the industry has become increasingly self-reflective,” said Paul Miller, vice president of sales at Precision Record Press in Burlington, Ont.
“On the one hand, it’s an issue that plants are really starting to address, and on the other hand, we’re getting more and more requests from artists asking what our sustainability efforts are.”
Records are made from polyvinyl chloride, commonly known as PVC. It is a petroleum product obtained through a complex chemical process. Vinyl records thrown away in landfills remain there more or less forever. Therefore, Precision focuses on minimizing waste, Miller said.
“The most impactful thing is to send as little as possible to the landfill,” he says.
To reduce waste, Precision offers what it calls Eco-Mix. Misprints and rejected albums from the printing presses are crushed together with vinyl shavings left over from the manufacturing process and used to create new records.
New sounds are born from old scraps
Record factories have always tried to reuse this scrap material, but Miller said his factory has taken it a step further. The company sorts leftover vinyl by color, allowing him to offer artists who want to use recycled materials a choice of six distinctive shades. Red, blue, green, yellow/orange, purple/pink, gray.
“Recycled vinyl products commonly referred to as ‘random colors’ have existed in the industry for some time,” Miller said. “This is a grab bag with a combination of repolished colors to create an amazing color.
“Sometimes it looks OK. Sometimes it looks like a baby threw up. So it works in terms of being a sustainable product, but it’s not that pretty.”
Eco Mix costs the same as a monochromatic record and boasts similar sound quality, making it an attractive option for artists looking to make an environmental statement, Miller said.
Pop star Billie Eilish releases a special version of her debut album made from recycled materials. Smaller bands and labels are also attracting attention.
“The cost is good, but I think being environmentally friendly is important to me,” said Josh Wickins, owner of Wormwood Records in Ajax, Ont.
Wickins runs the label out of the basement of Caribbean Roti Restaurant. The room is filled with amplifiers and music equipment, and the walls are plastered with posters advertising gigs for the many bands that use the space to jam and rehearse.
“This is the definition of pure punk basement,” Wickins said. “It’s just a pure punk spot.”
Wormwood’s latest release comes from Toronto hardcore band Street Justice. The members of the band are committed vegans who live a straight-edge lifestyle without the use of alcohol or drugs. Their songs are short, loud and raw, and firmly focus on social issues such as animal rights. Their new album is pressed on shocking pink eco-mix vinyl.
“For this record, I think it really connected with the ethos of the band, their values and ideals,” Wickins said.
It is debatable how much actual environmental benefit these provide. And in some parts of the music industry, a move is underway to move beyond vinyl entirely.
In the Netherlands, a group of eight companies calling themselves Green Vinyl aims to streamline the vinyl pressing process and make it more energy efficient. The company also hopes to replace the vinyl currently used to make LPs with more environmentally friendly materials. British company Evolution Music is releasing a record on plant-based bioplastics that it claims are non-toxic and compostable.
“I think change is coming. It’s inevitable,” said Kyle Devine, a Canadian who teaches musicology at the University of Oslo in Norway.
Devine, who has visited green vinyl factories and is a member of Evolution Music’s advisory board, calls PVC “a particularly nasty plastic.”
“Records are a fossil fuel product,” he said. “Creating it pollutes, and removing it also pollutes.”
Divine claimed that he did not dislike the record. He even has his own small record collection. He just thinks a better way to make records is within reach.
Audible Defects in Vinyl Alternatives
He acknowledged that vinyl alternatives have so far been met with skepticism from music fans who say they don’t sound as good. But he is hopeful that will change, and said some listeners may be willing to sacrifice sound quality if it means being more environmentally friendly.
“The people who are buying new records are quite young, and we know that young people are very concerned about climate issues,” he says. “So we could imagine younger buyers buying records that were more environmentally friendly, no matter how they sounded.”
Devine said that in the grand scheme of things, records aren’t a big environmental problem. And every music format (even streaming) has a carbon footprint. But that shouldn’t stop music fans and the music industry from striving to be better, he said.
Miller said his company is open to the idea of vinyl replacements, but none are available for sale yet.
“At the moment, I feel that more needs to be done in this regard. I think vinyl fans can accept some trade-off for a more sustainable product, even if it means a little more surface noise.” ” he said.
“But to me it seems like it’s not there yet and there’s too much surface noise. So what’s the point of making records that don’t sound great?”
For now, Miller said, his factory will focus on reducing waste and reusing as much material as possible to promote vinyl’s resurgence in a sustainable way.
