The Case of the Brazilian Music Paper Packaging

Something struck me when I opened the cases of two brand new CDs I had ordered at the same time from Amazon. One was a soul music CD and the other was Céu. I recognized right away that Céu´s self titled CD packaging was exactly like that of Bebel Gilberto´s Momento in that it was mostly paper with the only plastic, being the mold where the actual disc fit into; while my soul music had the regular jewel case.

I paused for a second and thought to myself, why on earth doesn´t every distribution company use more (recycled) paper for packaging? I mean, really. Is it necessary to have all of that plastic with the jewel case? I understand that the jewel case takes less effort – just slip the sleeves into the appropriate places, but is it very responsible?

I took a look at Bebel Gilberto´s self titled CD also, which was her release before Momento, and this packaging contained no plastic at all. Very unique, I thought. And then I noticed that all of these CDs were from Six Degrees Records based out of San Francisco and it made sense to me. Here I was thinking that this green kind of packaging had something to do with these two artists being Brazilian and connected to the Amazon Rain Forest… when possibly, it had more to do with the green consciousness of northern California.

If I recall correctly, Bebel Gilberto´s Tanto Tempo, which was released before her self titled album, also has the same type of packaging, and honestly, even though they have nothing to do with it, I tend to believe that you kind of look at an artist a little differently if they are represented by an environmentally conscious record company. Don´t you think?

Just this morning I was telling my cousin about a lamp that is green because it´s packaging is zero waste. That means it´s packaging is apart of it´s everyday function. Don´t believe me? Look it up for yourself! It´s called the Knoend Lite2go and you can find it at greenfeet.com.

Perhaps I´m being optimistic (like that´s a bad thing), but I´m hoping that this type of low percentage and zero waste is the new path of consumer product packaging. It´s not that we can´t do it, it´s more like we either haven´t or won´t. Six Degrees just proved to us that even a record company can be green.

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