Sydney Water and Republic of Everyone create vinyl records from recycled plastic

Sydney Water, in partnership with do-good creative agency Republic of Everyone, have pioneered a way to produce vinyl records from marine plastics. The innovation is part of the Beat the Bottle campaign, which was devised to tackle the issue of bottled water by connecting people to the impact of plastic waste on beaches and waterways.

Volunteers have been invited to popular beaches to enjoy the beats of local DJs and “junk drummers”, while helping clean up plastics, litter and other pollutants. The collected plastics are shred into pieces and pressed on the spot into unique working vinyls, then given back to volunteers to thank them for their efforts.

The records contain the track “Come Clean”, created by up-and-coming Sydney musicians Chaos Emerald and Jayteehazard just for the event. The record pressing technology itself was developed by local industrial design house Vert Design. After a successful launch over last summer, the campaign will roll out across 16 events in summer 2018/19.