Since I can’t live without good music, I am always sensitive about recycling initiatives and practices in the music industry. So, after the recent post for plastic free music concerts, here is another interesting development. A new initiative about recycling guitar strings is already in progress. According some estimates, almost 680 tones or 1.5 million pounds of guitar strings end up in landfills in USA, annually! This is crazy as there are many ways to reuse and recycle them.
But recently, we had some very good news. Playback is a string recycling collaboration between powerhouse recycling giant Terracycle and music company D’Addario. D’Adarrio is the world’s largest manufacturer of musical instrument accessories, and for years has prioritized sustainability in the way they manufacture, package and ship their products.
To participate, interested musicians need only to begin collecting their strings broken from enthusiastic jam sessions or vigorous cello solos, and then mail them to Terracycle — free of charge. Once sent to Terracycle the metal and nylon strings are separated by type. The metal strings are melted down to create new metal alloys while the nylon strings are recycled into industrial plastic applications.
To date, Playback has collected 30,000 strings for recycling, their goal is 300,000 by the end of 2016. You can be part of the project by signing up here.
