You Might Have Some Old Vinyl In Your Collection That Could Help Save The Planet

If you’ve got some old vinyl lying around and want to help the environment, you’ll want to become acquainted with Australia's new Vinyl Deposit Scheme.

Much like container deposit schemes you’ve probably heard about (or read about on the side of a bottle or can), the groundbreaking initiative by local promoter/label I heard a whisper and its Club Seven in partnership with Melbourne-based Program Records Thornbury is looking to make the world a better place, one record at a time.

If you have vinyl from I heard a whisper, they'll reimburse you $1 if you return it to Program Records Thornbury; those records will then be recycled into new records. 

Additionally, Program Records Thornbury are able to reuse other vinyl from records that have been pressed at their plant, so you can drop off any old records pressed at the Program Pressing plant for recycling (minus the $1 refund).

“During lockdown, I started studying UTas' free online Sustainable Living course (thanks UTas!) and was thinking about how when I went to high school in Germany the recycling culture left Australia embarrassingly for dead,” I heard a whisper’s Jas Moore told The Music.

“One of the best ways to reduce landfill and depleting resources is to stop using resources unnecessarily in the first place. Enter the Vinyl Deposit Scheme. By using recycled vinyl and providing an incentive for it in turn to be recycled we're hopefully able to reduce our strain on natural resources.

“Eventually it would be awesome if the music community was completely carbon footprint free, and free of microplastics and needing to source virgin material to make plastic, and there's been some great initiatives so far. Feels like a bit of a moon shot at the moment though definitely achievable!  

“What can I say, I like fishing and swimming, though doing these things in plastic and microplastic filled waters kinda ruins the vibe (not to mention your guts!). Hope that's not too hippy dippy, plastic in waterways is just a bit gross! 

“Hopefully this scheme can be a small contribution to a more environmentally sustainable music community, I'm sure there's loads of people with similar ideas that we could put into action as well - would love to hear them!”

For more details, head to I heard a whisper's Facebook page.