Your hipster record collecting friends just might save the earth.
Here’s how it will go down, as explained by the website Fast Company.
We have a lot of plastic straws, that get used once and then thrown out, which means more long-lasting plastic waste in landfills, or the ocean, or other places we probably don’t want plastic to live for long periods of time.
There have been campaigns to get people to cut back on straws, and they’ve been successful in a few places, but there’s also a new project called Straw Vinyl, which has lined up some high-profile bands to release limited-edition vinyl records that are made out of plastic harvested from old straws.
Later this year the organizers will put straw collection bins in 55 participating bars, along with signup sheets for those who want to pledge no more straw use.
The straws they collect in these bins will make their way to record pressing plants and go on sale in December, at which point the audiophiles who buy the albums can go to parties and tell everyone that they were into recycling old straws before it was cool.
It’s been a couple years since the monstrous “fatberg” of Whitechapel, London.
It was 130 tons and 250 meters of grease, wet wipes and other waste, including plastic waste.
It took nine weeks to unblock the district’s sewers, and that heroic effort has now been immortalized.
The website Londonist notes that there is a memorial manhole cover on the site now, which reads, “The Whitechapel fatberg was defeated here in 2017.”
Victory never tasted so sweet, though it certainly has smelled better.
Bacardi just found the best use for plastic straws ever—turn them into vinyl records (Fast Company)
‘Monster’ Whitechapel fatberg unveiled at London museum (BBC)
The Whitechapel Fatberg Has Its Own Hidden Memorial (Londonist)
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Vinyl photo by Donnie Ozone via Flickr/Creative Commons