The Swedish label BIS Records is switching to sustainable packaging of its releases, in ecopaks featuring a recyclable sleeve made of certified cardboard, using soy ink, eco-friendly glue and water-based varnish.
‘There are so many great green initiatives today. We had a discussion within the company about reducing our carbon footprint, and this idea came up as a first step’, says Robert von Bahr, who has done an ecological makeover of his own home and drives an electric car. In fact, he picked up an idea of his wife, the flautist Sharon Bezaly, who proposed to eliminate any plastic from the CD packaging.
While the ecopak is about 20% more expensive to produce than a normal plastic jewel case, it is about a third lighter, reducing carbon emission from transport. « If you want to do this you might as well go the whole hog, » said von Bahr. « It is slightly more expensive but I believe that is only temporary until others come on board. We can’t go on like this. For every 100 million CDs – and there are hundreds of millions produced each year – we are talking about four million kilos of plastic. »
BIS ecopaks are slim and elegant, they can receive a substantial booklet and a CD in a protective paper slipcover.
BIS Recording & Marketing Coordinator Emilia Ergin; CEO Robert von Bahr; flautist Sharon Bezaly von Bahr.
Photo: Jenny Thörnberg
