Michael Stipe and Beatie Wolfe to sell first bioplastic 12″ record

August 31, 2022

Tags: climate emergency Evolution Music Michael Stipe Vinyl

REM’s Michael Stipe is collaborating with Beatie Wolfe to release a split-12” record made of bioplastics instead of PVC. The new record is released this Friday – September 2nd – and will feature “Future If Future” by Stipe and “Oh My Heart” by Wolfe.

The release is in support of EarthPercent, the UK charity of which Brian Eno is a founder, which aims to make it easy for the music industry to support organisations that address the climate emergency.

This will be the first bioplastic vinyl to be released commercially using Evolution Music’s technology that “uses circular economy principles to replace the harmful production and use of single-use plastics and minimise waste in the music industry.”

Currently, Evolution estimates that vinyl pressing uses 30,000 tonnes of environmentally-damaging PVC plastic each year. Bioplastic, which is derived from natural sugars and starches, hopes to be a significant step towards a non-fossil fuel vinyl future.