This post is all about gettin’ your groove on plastic-free.
My Facebook followers will well know that we had a CD buying incident a few weeks back. I had bought the most recent Triple J compilation in all its plasticised glory. And I’d rationalised this purchase because I have a wee little collection going and I just wanted to maintain my cute little stack that sits on our bookshelf, rather than just download the digital copy.
I had not anticipated however that the bloody ABC would further thwart me in my plastic-free efforts. The CD case was double-packaged (cardboard cover over the CD case) and had the cutest little plastic google-eyes stuck on the cardboard cover. Freakin’ google-eyes people. Freakin’ cute adorably irresistible google-eyes on a hotdog. Well, they had me at “please buy me, I’m cute”. I bought it from the ABC Shop though and at least it wasn’t further wrapped in the weird clingy plastic you get from places like JB Hifi. And I’ll keep it long time. I promise.
The Infamous Insidious Triple J Incident
Well.
I should be a bit more careful about the example I set. Hubby came home not a week later with a new CD for him. Foals – Holy Fire. It’s a good album. I really like it. I did not like my husband at that moment.
I love the way that boycotting plastics has awakened us to just how ubiquitous they are. When we made the commitment, CDs and DVDs had not naturally occurred to me as being made from plastic. But they are. The disc, the case, the packaging. My good dear friend Ange quickly pointed out that this means my lovely husband can’t buy any more first-person-shooter X-Box games. I freely admit I was happy about this. But me, I loves me some good tunes, and I really like having The Real Thing rather than a digital copy and I struggle to correctly file and sort my iTunes. I know I’m not alone in this, seriously it’s like taking a second job.
So, here’s the story with CDs. Your disc is made from polycarbonate (#7), combined with other materials like lacquer, aluminium and other metals. And mysterious chemicals that nobody could know about or pronounce. I found this poster on the Cd DVD lifecycle from the US Environmental Protection Agency to be really informative, and I highly recommend the read. Your CD case, tantalisingly referred to as a “jewel case”, is made from polystyrene (#6). And you might get it all wrapped up like Christmas with a silky layer of polyethylene (#4). You can’t even go all retro and switch to records. They’re vinyl. Polyvinyl chloride. PVC. #3. Bad.
So, are us plastic-free souls banished to a silent and grooveless world? Or worse (gulp!)… FM radio?
Well, of course not.
So, how to be a greenie and still be a groover? Here are some ideas.
1. Digital downloads are the obvious choice. No disc, no case, no packaging. But don’t steal from the artists, use certified sites. I have heard dodgy things about the iTunes monopoly and Spotify having very low returns for artists. But I don’t know what’s better. Help?
2. Many artists (usually independents) will use all-paper packaging around their disc. And if you feel that it’s more ethical to support artists directly rather than the Apple juggernaut, or you would prefer to support your local independent record store, I say go for gold. The plastic is only one factor in the overall picture of being a responsible citizen of the world, after all.
3. Take care of your shizzle. Don’t just leave your discs on your car dashboard or within reaching distance of your biscuit-fisted toddler. And if you do get plagued by scratches, use toothpaste*, it works a treat. *Oops, toothpaste is usually packaged in plastic. What else you can use I do not know.
4. As Beth Terry urges us, THINK BEFORE YOU BURN. Aren’t these fantastical Clouds supposed to be saving us from ourselves in the form of cyber back-up? Am I right? I may need someone to come explain The Cloud to me. Or there are also flash drives, which yes are usually housed in plastic but at least they’re not single use and can hold heaps of music files.
5. Buy all of your music second-hand. Now, if you are sourcing a groovy little record player you just have to score maximum hipster points by buying up all those irresistibly dodgy albums. Just think, you would be rescuing them from landfill and that makes you a hero.
6. Get thee to the disco. It is a form of resource-sharing (like car-pooling) where that one record will service the purposes of several music lovers all at once.
Ooh, well now I’m finding myself a little bit partial to number 5. Just think of the potential…
You could become the proud new parent of this,
Or this,
Or even…
this.
Yes, that says Let Me Touch Him by The Ministers Quartet. Happy listening everyone!
Plastsick 