The New CD Case
byWhile I was picking up my passes for New Music West I decided to have a little look around the offices and scoop some swag. One item that caught my eye was a CD case:
The paper we print on is either recycled or is made from wood that has been logged responsibly. 100% recycled paper stock has been an MMS manufacturing option for many years. And now, almost all of our standard products (booklets, tray cards, DigiPaks, posters) are printed on Forest Stewardship Council certified papers… [MusicManufacturing]
The folks over at Music Manufacturing Services have gone full steam ahead in revolutionizing the music industry. They currently offer the “green CD” packaging including the paper case, potato starch foam tray, vegetable-based inks for printing, biodegradable overwrap, and the entire company is committed to reducing its carbon emissions.
Holding this cardboard and potato-made case in my hands it’s just as light as a plastic jewel case, it has a slot on the side for any additional artist info and the entire cover and back are printable. The only draw back is that MMS is in Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, so there’s no location in BC that can supply these cases for local artists. However, I think fans should truly appreciate an artist who has gone out of their way to provide a more sustainable method of getting their music to the masses in this manner.
I have hundreds of jewel cases around the house just collecting dust as the actual CDs themselves ended up in books for under the seat in the car over the years. The MMS cases would definitely take up less room in the home and on shelves. I think it’s great to see an innovation like this, and I’m always a fan of discovering a product is made of potato (is there anything it can’t do?).
12 Comments — Comments Are Closed
Yay for sustainable, organic, compostable CD cases! If we could only compost iPods 🙂 One can dream…
This is a rad idea. I am with ya – no idea what to do with all these plastic jewel cases sitting empty on the shelf. These ones are even compostable to help grow more potatoes.
People still buy physical cds?
Hmmm. Interesting.
@Biehler – I knew *someone* was going to bring that up hehe.
I still have LP’s in my cupboards! (not to mention a stack of 45’s from the 60’s…and boxes of ’78’s in the basement!
In the Guardian they advertise a USB turntable so you can rip your LPs and 45s. I have never seen that offered here. RIAA rules I suppose.
Plastic jewel cases are remarkably fragile, and seem to fall apart very quickly. Most of my discs now live in zippered cases, which take up a lot less space and keep them playable. Under the car seat does not sound like a place to keep CDs you want to hear again.
I seem to recall that this packaging was used last year for the Rhythms Del Mundo compilation of Beuna Vista Social Club covers of popular artist songs.
That said, the real solution is to avoid the problem in the first place – CDs will be obsolete in a few years, eliminating the need for packaging.
CDman is located here in Vancouver and produce the green tray products as well.
ph; 604-261-8314
The challenge I have with the (dreaded) day when CD’s become obsolete is that the post-modern world at large doesn’t seem to care as much about the actual quality of the music they are listening to. And with all of it becoming digital and the choice to rip and transfer things at poorer quality settings just to save on space (and have MORE quantity than most people will listen to in their lives) means that we will either need to think of another solution or suffer. Sadly, the big manufacturer’s solution is that we create iPod’s with more space every year. And so the old ones end up in the trash…which is also an image thing…(bigger, better, faster, more!) Somehow, having a decent CD player, quality-made…and having quality CD’s (with lossless sound) that come in 100% biodegradable packaging…still wins out in my books.
I’m SO in favour of this option and I intend to pursue it for my new CD project.
P.S. — More people should watch the internet-based film “The Story of Stuff”.
Hmmm very interesting, I wonder if it will catch on in a big way.
Thanks for commenting on Paul Jarvis’s story about trying to find the greenest CD options! Looks like the company MMS will be including his piece in their promo materials to be distributed at SXSW.
Eco-friendly packaging for CD/DVD has come a long way in the last couple of years… both in the quantity of styles being offered and the price point. As an actual disc replication plant located in B.C., we’ve been very active promoting our own line of no-plastic and low-plastic packaging for our discs and, I’m happy to say, our eco-friendly packaging has left the old plastic jewel cases in the dust… by about a 3-to-1 margin. Another step in the ‘green’ direction is reducing minimum order requirements – because producing less means wasting less. 🙂