Vinyl Upcycling
Hi everyone!
This will be my last blog post on vinyl before I move on to talk about digital music and streaming. In this post I will be talking about the many ways in which people have managed to upcycle old and used vinyl records, and how the act of upcycling is beneficial to our environment.
While the packaging of vinyl records in cardboard and plastic sleeves is not good for the environment if disposed of improperly, what’s more harmful to the environment is the vinyl record itself due to it being made of a very toxic plastic (PVC) as mentioned in my earlier blog post ‘The Poison Plastic’. The situation with vinyl is quite tricky because not only does it cause air pollution by releasing toxic fumes when it is incinerated in landfills, but it also is very hard to recycle. Therefore, most vinyl will eventually end up in landfills where it will get incinerated and contribute to air pollution.
However, while this might be the eventual outcome of vinyl, what we can do to limit its damage on the environment would be to try and keep it out of the landfills for as long as possible, in other words, we should try and extend its lifespan. Most of the time vinyl collectors would dispose of a vinyl when its old, scratched up and therefore cannot play the music properly. However instead of disposing of them, they could be upcycled and used for other purposes. Upcycling is a process by which old products are modified and get a second life as they are turned into a new product.
According to ‘A Review on Upcycling’ by Kyungeun Sung, environmental benefits of upcycling include ‘solid waste reduction, landfill space saving, raw materials use reduction, energy use reduction, and greenhouse gas emissions reduction’ all of which would cause a reduction in the amount of environmental pollution produced.
Here are some examples of vinyl upcycling that I have found:
By turning old and used records into new products, we would be able to extend the lifespan of the vinyl and stop it from entering the landfills before its time. I myself have actually tried to do some vinyl upcycling before by using some old badly scratched vinyl where I made them into vinyl bowls:
Okay that’s it for today’s blog post, and for my posts on Vinyl. In my next blog post I will be focusing on digital music and how it is actually the most pollutant form of music so stay tuned for that!
References:
Wine Rack Made From Upcycled Vinyl Records. Recyclart. (2020). Retrieved 30 September 2020, from https://www.recyclart.org/wine-rack-made-upcycled-vinyl-records/.
Upcycled-wonders.com. (2020). Retrieved 30 September 2020, from https://www.upcycled-wonders.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/recycling-vinyl-records-lady-bag-creative-retro-fashion-accessory.jpg.
Penman upcycled vinyl record. Bomdesign. (2020). Retrieved 30 September 2020, from http://bomdesign.nl/penman/.
MY BROKEN RECORD: UPCYCLING VINYL RECORDS INTO EVERYDAY OBJECTS – Eco-conscious Brands. Eco-conscious Brands. (2020). Retrieved 30 September 2020, from https://www.eco-consciousbrands.com/project-3-p/practices/blog/my-broken-record-upcycling-vinyl-records-into-everyday-objects.
DIY Vinyl Record Bowl. Flickr. (2020). Retrieved 30 September 2020, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/35754040@N04/6639363529.
May, C. (2020). DIY Record Clock – Little Red Window. Little Red Window. Retrieved 30 September 2020, from https://littleredwindow.com/diy-record-clock/.
Core.ac.uk. (2020). Retrieved 30 September 2020, from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30636736.pdf.
