With every new musical technology, another becomes obsolete; and in most people’s homes it’s not hard to find stacks of LPs, cassettes and even CDs, sitting on shelves, gathering dust. Now though, new life can be given to your old vinyl, in the form of bowls, coasters or bracelets.
Vinylux, a company based in Philadelphia, harvests obsolete piles of records to give a new use to this neglected, but not forgotten, material. Over the past five years they have recycled about 300,000 records – about 80,000 pounds of vinyl and cardboard, and using a thermal molding process, have transformed them into eco-chic household items.
The process keeps the record labels intact, which has resulted in many of Vinylux’s customers providing their own, cherished but unused LPs and 45s, to be turned into personal and unique items.
According to the Atlanta Journal, Vinylux owner Jeff Davies says that while he offers products made from recycled jazz, blues and soul albums, classic rock artists like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones outsell everything else three to one.
“If I only had a warehouse full of old Beatles albums with the original Apple label logos, I could retire,” he said. “The demand for that alone is incredible.”
As well as recycling obsolete records Vinylux also send non-usable album covers to be recycled into chipboard, and use non-toxic printing inks and minimal packaging.
Vinylux isn’t the only company giving new life to old vinyl. The website www.45ipodcases.com for instance, lets 45s’ live once again in the digital musical age, by folding them into iPod cases. The company discovered that the center hole of 45s’ are the same size as the iPod’s click wheel, and now transform everything from Chaka Khan to Tchaikovsky recirds into cases. The company has also expanded by producing cases for iPod nanos’ crafted from old cassette tapes.
