Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Robbie Williams CDs will be used to pave roads in China...Awesome

EMI has announced that "unsold copies" of Rudebox, by British pop star Robbie Williams, "will soon be used to resurface Chinese roads." More than a million copies of the CD "will be crushed and sent to the country to be recycled," we read, where they "will be used in street lighting and road surfacing projects."This reminds me of a house I visited back in September, in Chicago – about which I wrote a short article for the March 2008 issue of Dwell – wherein the owners had pulverized boxes of old vinyl records, added them to a glass aggregate, and used that to surface the floor of their master bathroom. You could actually see tiny, vaguely recognizable pieces of crushed 45s catching sunlight near the toilet... National Geographic also covered the house....

2 comments:

Margot said...

Aren't there more - what's the word again lol? - [i]urgent[/i] or important matters to worry about?? I don't know... Wars, animals etc... Somehow I find myself unable to think anything else...
I like the idea of recycling vinyls in a house, though. We do that a little at home, we have vinyls on the walls (because my guy is a musician), so from walls to the floor, there is just a step, isn't there?
I understand your "awesome" in the title to be ironical...
I agree ;-)

Eve Wickman said...

Hey Margot!

I understand what you mean; but I disagree a bit. Although this may seem excessive and disproportionate in terms of other world urgencies; I think it’s a strong statement. It is a form of recycling and from a country like China who has a tradition of mass production with little concern for how/where the waste is used and where it ultimately dies; I think this is a big step in the right direction for them as far as thinking beyond initial use for objects. I do think it’s awesome. I think more of us should be thinking beyond the first lifespan of the items we choose to purchase; it’s a personal responsibility, I think.
I hope you and the bunnies are well! Might be coming to the South of France this summer; would love to meet you in person and talk about bunnies; saving the wolves and other interesting things over a CafĂ© Au Lait…

Incidentally, last weekend I found a lost dog and after 2 days was able to reconnect him with his owner; he ended up being a wolf mix. He looks just like a wolf. Now my parents are teasing me for picking up random stray wolves…

Best always,
Eve