Coldplay have said that each vinyl copy of their forthcoming album will be pressed onto discs made from nine recycled plastic bottles, recovered from consumer waste.
The British pop-rock band have said they are aiming to make their most eco-friendly album yet. The pop group’s 10th record, Moon Music, will be released in October.
A special “notebook” edition will also be comprised of 70 per cent river plastic, taken from the Rio Las Vacas in Guatemala. The band say this will reduce their carbon emissions by 85 per cent and prevent the manufacturing of more than 25 metric tonnes of virgin plastic.
The band have a history of making climate-conscious decisions. In 2021, they announced a plan to cut the carbon footprint of their Music Of The Spheres world tour, by using solar powered lights and sustainable aviation fuel to power the production of each performance.
Their decision reflects the huge resurgence of vinyl records over the last decade, with sales reaching a 20-year peak of 5.9 million units in the UK last year. However, they are made out of PVC, which is a by-product of the oil industry that can take up to 1,000 years to decompose in landfill.
Coldplay’s announcement comes as other international acts move to reduce their carbon footprint.
The 22-year-old singer-songwriter Billie Eilish made headlines in April after calling out artists who release multiple versions of their albums in different packaging, saying the practice is environmentally harmful.
“Some of the biggest artists in the world [are] making f***ing 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more,” Eilish told Billboard. “It’s so wasteful.”
In 2023, the “Lunch” singer helped launch and fund Reverb’s Music Decarbonization Project, which aims to eliminate carbon emissions created by the music industry.
Eilish’s Happier Than Ever tour served only plant-based meals to artists and crew, and she partially powered her headline set at Chicago’s Lollapalooza by setting up a temporary “solar farm” on the festival site.
Her third, most recent album, Hit Me Hard And Soft, came with a sustainability plan, with vinyl copies pressed onto recycled or eco-vinyl, and all of the packaging was made from recycled materials.
She also used raw, plant-based ink and water-based dispersion varnish, with the album’s sleeves being 100 per cent recycled and reusable. The artwork and track-listing for each vinyl will remain the same across every edition, which she hoped would suppress the demand for multiple purchases from fans.
The singer told Billboard she hoped that other artists would “adopt the same practices, and they will eventually become standard”.
