Sustainable CD Packaging Made Of Recycled Plastic

In the footsteps of the environmentally friendly “Eco Record”, the “Jewel Box” for CDs now follows suit: the storage media manufacturer Sonopress has developed especially sustainable CD packaging together with the major clients Sony Music and Warner Music. The albums “Still Working 2” by Slim and “Portraits” by Birdy were already delivered in the “Jewel Box”.

In close cooperation with the two major clients Sony Music and Warner Music, the Bertelsmann Marketing Services storage media manufacturer Sonopress has developed especially sustainable CD packaging. The new “Jewel Box” mostly consists of a high share of PCR-recycled plastic (polystyrene) and thereby has a clearly better CO2 footprint than the formerly used packaging. PCR stands for post-consumer recycled; a plastic produced from recyclable plastic waste.

The production areas in Gütersloh and Charlotte in the US as well as the Sonopress sourcing department were involved with the development of the innovative packaging. “Our teams decisively played a role in the implementation and evaluation, have done test series, checked the production processing compatibility, and supported clients with the market introduction,” said Monika Johannleweling of the Sonopress project management.

In the meantime, the first orders have already been produced and delivered, according to the company, including the album “Still Working 2” by Slim and the CD “Portraits” by Birdy. A major client is planning to completely switch its demand for “Jewel” boxes to the new sustainable version by the beginning of April. By then, the Sonopress subsidiary Topac will also have switched the cardboard packaging with the CD plastic tray to the PCR-recycled material. With the “Eco Record”, Sonopress already developed a new, environmentally friendly LP form based on recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET)