Re: Vinyl

I’m really excited to be talking about a special company today.

Daniel from Re:Vinyl has come up with some creative and innovative solutions to the millions of records and CDs that are thrown away each year when they become ‘useless’ and unplayable.

They usually end up on landfill sites, or are incinerated, but Daniel takes hold of them and lovingly crafts them into useful and fun household objects.

His range of products includes storage boxes, cd holders, coffee tables and new to his collection are light fittings and fabulous wall art.

Most of us, unless djs or vinyl enthusiasts, probably think that production of vinyl records is virtually extinct now. But production of vinyl in the UK is the second largest in the world; second only to the US where it is a £14.6 billion a year industry.

In the US ways have been found to recycle vinyl: scrap vinyl is reformed into bottles, floor tiles, garden hosing, pipes and traffic cones. It is also more environmentally friendly to make than other plastics; less energy, fewer emissions. However it does not ever biodegrade or break down in landfill.

Europe is planning on recycling 200,000 tonnes of PVC waste by 2010; however this falls well short of the amount that is currently being thrown away. In whatever small way, Re:Vinyl is helping to counteract this problem.

Mint Vinyl was originally set up as a second-hand vinyl record dealer, but many of the incoming records were broken, scratched, and generally unplayable.

It was an awareness of the environmental impact of these records ending up in the landfill that inspired Daniel to use these records to create something new. And out of this, Re:Vinyl was born.

Daniel suggests taking your own old records to charity shops so that they can make money or offering them on Freecycle. He will take them wherever possible, and regularly takes records from charity shops that have not sold, but at the moment has no room for more! So please don’t send them to him at the moment.

Daniel is passionate about protecting the environment and carries his vision into every aspect of his business. Most of his products get sold directly, but when he does post items, Daniel uses cardboard that he has available from other sources – so all packaging is reused.

You can follow what he is up to on his My Space page.

Daniel is giving away a fabulous and unique prize during our September Pledge and WIN competition. He is offering one lucky winner a vinyl box; it measures about 8″ square and is suitable for holding 7″ vinyls or anything else you’d like to put in it! It’s utterly gorgeous, so make sure you enter the competition to win a beautiful, hand crafted prize.