75 years of the LP: For love of the world, should you own or stream?

Streaming generates more emissions than any other format, for an interesting reason: We listen more, when we listen online. See how else the formats stack up.

There’s one aspect of vinyl’s longevity and resurgence that poses a concern.

Polyvinyl chloride or PVC — the material used to make vinyl — is a hard-to-recycle plastic. Production methods involve the release of toxic chlorine-based chemicals.

Greenpeace once called PVC the world’s “most environmentally damaging plastic”.

So, how bad is the LP or long-playing record, from an ecological standpoint?

According to researchers at Keele University, in an article published on the university website in 2019, the average vinyl record