Okay-Pop — South Korea’s explosive cultural export — is widely known for its catchy tunes, intricate choreographies, and world affect. Nevertheless, evidently its meteoric rise to world recognition has inadvertently led to a big environmental concern. Latest knowledge reveals that the quantity of plastic utilized in manufacturing Okay-Pop albums has surged by over 14 instances up to now six years.
Paperwork obtained by Woo Gained Shik of the Democratic Occasion of Korea (DPK) from the Ministry of Surroundings present that Okay-Pop leisure firms used an astonishing 801.5 tons of plastic in 2020 for the manufacturing of bodily albums. This consists of the CDs, photograph playing cards, and wrapping vinyl. To place this into perspective, the determine was a mere 55.8 tons in 2017.
What’s much more alarming is that these figures is likely to be an underestimation. Given the large gross sales quantity of Okay-Pop albums, the precise quantity of plastic used may very well be a lot greater. Information from the native gross sales tracker Circle Chart signifies that over 74.2 million Okay-Pop albums have been bought in South Korea in 2020. This interprets to roughly 1,395 tons of plastic waste simply from the CDs, excluding different packaging supplies and merchandise. Every CD unit, on common, weighs round 18 grams.
HYBE, one of many big leisure firms and the driving power behind BTS, disclosed in its sustainability administration report that it alone used 894.6 tons of plastic for producing and packaging Okay-Pop albums in 2020.
As plastic utilization surges, these firms discover themselves bearing a bigger monetary burden. They’re required to pay growing quantities in expenses as compensation for his or her environmental impression.
The environmental issues haven’t fallen on deaf ears among the many Okay-Pop fandom. A 2021 survey by Kpop4Planet, a digital local weather initiative led by followers, discovered {that a} staggering 95.6% of respondents consider that leisure firms needs to be held accountable for the business’s local weather actions. Followers and artists have been deemed accountable by 59.4% and 39.5% of respondents, respectively.
In response, Kpop4Planet has launched a worldwide advocacy marketing campaign titled “No Okay-Pop on a Useless Planet.” The marketing campaign pushes for a greener and extra sustainable business. They’ve been urging firms to introduce a “inexperienced album possibility.” This may enable followers to pay for a number of albums whereas solely receiving a restricted variety of bodily copies, thus lowering waste.
Though leisure firms have made strikes in the direction of extra environmentally pleasant practices, akin to digitally distributing music and merchandise, these measures are usually not sufficient. Kpop4Planet’s name for a inexperienced album possibility stays unanswered.
Surprisingly, the surroundings ministry presently has no plans to impose rules on leisure firms to curtail their plastic waste. There’s additionally no initiative to incorporate music albums on an overpackaging monitoring listing.
Consultant Woo emphasised the worldwide affect of the style and urged leisure firms to boost their ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) administration requirements. He additionally known as upon the surroundings ministry to plot methods to fight this rising problem. Amongst his solutions have been rules requiring firms to supply disposal info on album packaging and establishing cost-sharing measures for waste administration.
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