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Earth Day and Music

Have you ever thought about the impact that your CD collection has on the environment? In the spirit of Earth Day, I decided to look into just how much of a footprint those shiny little discs and their plastic cases leave on our planet. Then, we’ll talk about how the industry is fixing this problem, and how you can help too!

Every single CD in your collection emitted approximately one kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere between when it was produced to when it arrived at your local music store. I just looked at my rack of CDs, and that’s a lot of carbon dioxide…

As well, the jewel cases that most discs are packaged in contain polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with numerous additives. PVC is one of the least recyclable plastics; 99 per cent of post-consumer PVC ends up in our landfills.

Things are changing in the industry, however. More and more CDs are being released with little or no plastic in the cases. Instead, they are made with recycled paper products and recycled plastic, reducing the environmental impacts of the packaging. Not only does this reduce the impact on the environment, it makes for more space on your CD shelf, since each case is generally thinner than the typical jeweled case.

Another earth-friendly alternative to buying plastic-cased CDs is, of course, iTunes. By purchasing your albums digitally, you are virtually eliminating all environmental impacts from the manufacturing, packaging and delivering of the album. The only impact that remains is from the recording process, but even that’s starting to change. Some artists are making an effort to reduce their emissions while they’re in the studio. For example, Jack Johnson recorded all of his 2008 release, Sleep through the Static, with solar energy.

It’s not just cars and big factories that are contributing to global warming. Almost everything we do and own makes an impact on our environment. But as musical consumers, we can do our part to reduce that impact by making environmentally-friendly choices when it comes to buying new tunes.