In this last blog post, I would like to highlight the most significant factor that contributes to pollution in the K-pop industry. Consumerism has always been the largest contributor to environmental pollution in many industries and K-pop is no different. To start this off, I would like to briefly introduce how the industry on its own can contribute to environmental pollution through fans as consumers.
Firstly, fans can get a chance to chat with their idols via video calls through winning fan sign events. In order to be one of the lucky winners, fans would need to spend an amount on albums so that they can get higher chances of winning. These albums would sometimes be disposed of after the event and the manner in which they are disposed of can be pollutive in nature as it contributes to the landfill. Additionally, these albums are not made of biodegradable materials, most of them are composed of glossy paper which may not be entirely biodegradable also the compact discs (CDs) which come together with the album are made of polycarbonate plastic. Polycarbonate plastics can threaten not only the environment but also human health concerns. The release of the additives found in these plastic products can be toxic to the environment, especially if these products are not disposed of properly (Hahladakis et al., 2018). At the same time, these K-pop albums then contain a lot of these non-biodegradable elements and the neglected state of how they are disposed of once done can lead to the release of the harmful toxins residing in the plastics. As these K-pop fans continue consuming these products at an alarming rate given the continued rise of the industry, I fear that there would continue to be more pollution issues within and beyond the industry.
Reference:
Hahladakis, J. N., Velis, C. A., Weber, R., Iacovidou, E. and Purnell, P. (2018). An overview of chemical additives present in plastics: Migration, release, fate and environmental impact during their use, disposal and recycling. Journal of Hazardous Materials. 344. pp. 179-199. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.10.014