By Andru Shively

At the dawn of the digital age of music, one might have predicted an expiration date for vinyl records and CDs. To the contrary, there has been a renewed, perhaps nostalgic, interest in listening to music on physical media. But can we reconcile our old-fashioned tastes with our new-age ideals of sustainability? UK rock band Coldplay appear to be in tune with such an idea.

The group’s tenth studio album, Moon Music, is set to enter Earth’s atmosphere later this year on 4 October – and in sustainable style. In a first, the album will be released as a 140-gram so-called EcoRecord LP, each one reportedly made from nine recycled PET bottles. The band claims on its website that this “will prevent the manufacture of more than 25 t of virgin plastic and provide an 85% reduction in manufacturing CO₂ emissions/kg compared to traditional 140g vinyl”.

Completing the pair is the EcoCD, each reportedly produced with 90% recycled polycarbonate; for the CD edition, the band claims 5 t of virgin plastics prevented from being manufactured and a 78% reduction in CO₂/kg emissions.

To top things off, Coldplay are collaborating with Dutch non-profit The Ocean Cleanup (Rotterdam; www.theoceancleanup.com) to produce a Notebook Edition of the EcoRecord LP, whose rPET consists of a reported 70% river plastics recovered by The Ocean Cleanup from the Río Las Vacas in Guatemala. The company states that this is the maximum percentage currently possible that maintains sound quality.

Sounds good to us!