BIS is switching to "ecopak" recyclable packaging

[Brian]

Press release dropped into my email:

NEWS

Robert von Bahr is known for producing some of the world's best classical music, but he's just as passionate about protecting the earth.

This month, von Bahr, who heads the independent Swedish record label BIS, will release a Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) in an 'ecopak', a totally recyclable sleeve made of certified cardboard using soy ink, eco-friendly glue and water-based varnish.

His company will package all of its recordings in the new sleeve once it uses up old inventory, he promises.

"The use of plastic is doing enormous harm to the environment," says von Bahr.  "No one can walk away from the pictures of whales, fish and turtles full of plastic without feeling horror."

The sleeve costs about 20 percent more to make than a standard plastic CD jewel box but weighs a third less, reducing the carbon emissions associated with transport costs. Von Bahr is taking the loss.

"If this helps the recording business move away from plastic packaging in favour of more ecological alternatives, I will be happy," says the veteran record industry executive. "I have rarely been so inspired by anything.  Everything about this is
right - the need, the timing and the solution".

BIS' first ecopak will house a SACD of 'Nomaden',  a work by Dutch composer Joel Bons that was awarded the 2019 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

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2011 forum discussion about ecopacks vs. digipacks:
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/cd-packaging-question-eco-pak-vs-digi-pak.264761/

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Will be interesting to see what it is like.  I admire him for doing the switch.  Hope, though, that it still protects the CDs well and one can remove them from their packaging easily.

PD

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

I find myself going more and more to lossless downloads, so I am not too affected.

I find the original "jewel case" to be utterly repulsive. Digipak seems even worse (plastic and cardboard glued together). I think an all paper or cardboard method would be best. A cardboard outer sleeve containing the booklet and CD in a plain paper sleeve would be quite adequate and more attractive to me than anything I've seen. Sort of like the clamshell format that is used for the big sets, except the clamshell is reduced to a cardboard envelope. Sort of like these, but on nicer stock printed with pretty artwork.



What is an eco pack, anyway? Maybe it is what I am describing.

[Jo498]

I am pretty sure I have an involved cardboard or paper-only packing somewhere, maybe BIS as well, but I bought this several years ago. Winter and Winter also has cardboard packing.

It is a nice gesture and I don't think it is meant as a "fig leaf". But in fact most of such things are. The plastic bags and bottles in the oceans comes mostly from Asia where countries are behind in garbage disposal and recycling but advancing quickly in consumption. And most of the dreaded micro plastic particles come from car tyres and clothing.

[Abuelo Igor]

What about the plastic the CDs themselves are made of? Let's see if they can make them of paper as well... 

[Omicron9]

Bravo, BIS.  I've recently purchased some older ECM titles which came in the cardboard sleeves.  Think the old 2-LP gatefold style packaging, but smaller.  The disks are quite accessible, but no danger of falling out.  And the cardboard sleeves eat less shelf space.

I applaud BIS' green stance very highly, but putting that aside for a moment, I'd still prefer the cardboard LP-style jacket.  No broken center hubs, if you drop them they don't shatter or crack, the tabs holding the "door" don't break off which leaves the lid unattachable, and on and on.

Again, nice work, BIS.

-09

[71 dB]

I find myself going more and more to lossless downloads, so I am not too affected.

You keep the downloads stored on a harddrive which has got a "packaging" too. 

[Pohjolas Daughter]

You keep the downloads stored on a harddrive which has got a "packaging" too. 

Perhaps we should go back then to only attending live concerts and not collect any recordings period? 

PD

[Mirror Image]

I hope this 'new, improved' packaging isn't a compromise on quality. A lot of these digipacks, which look nice, don't hold up very well over time and become scuffed up. With a jewel case, I can easily take the CD and artwork out and replace it, but you can't replace a digipack. I'm weary of this switch to say the least.

[Omicron9]

I hope this 'new, improved' packaging isn't a compromise on quality. A lot of these digipacks, which look nice, don't hold up very well over time and become scuffed up. With a jewel case, I can easily take the CD and artwork out and replace it, but you can't replace a digipack. I'm weary of this switch to say the least.

As I understand it, the Digipack is the plastic/cardboard amalgam with the CD held in place by the plastic hub.

The Ecopak has no plastic, and it like an LP sleeve.  It sounds as if BIS is moving to the Ecopak, not the Digipak.  You can kind-of see the small LP-style jacket in this pic:

https://www.facebook.com/266096413509231/photos/a.527066910745512/1969904266461762/?type=3&theater

-09

[Mirror Image]

As I understand it, the Digipack is the plastic/cardboard amalgam with the CD held in place by the plastic hub.

The Ecopak has no plastic, and it like an LP sleeve.  It sounds as if BIS is moving to the Ecopak, not the Digipak.

-09

Ah, these will be even worse! No protection whatsoever and the way these postal workers handle packages, it'll be a wonder if the disc arrives broken into a million pieces.

[Omicron9]

You'd think so!  I am also in the US, and buy CDs from amazon on an almost weekly basis.  I have far more shipping damage occuring with jewel boxes (cracked, door broken off, hub teeth broken and disk won't attach to tray, etc.) than with the LP-style folders.  In fact, I can't think of a single LP-style CD ecopak sleeve that has arrived with any damage.

-09

[Mirror Image]

You'd think so!  I am also in the US, and buy CDs from amazon on an almost weekly basis.  I have far more shipping damage occuring with jewel boxes (cracked, door broken off, hub teeth broken and disk won't attach to tray, etc.) than with the LP-style folders.  In fact, I can't think of a single LP-style CD ecopak sleeve that has arrived with any damage.

-09

Only time with tell...

[Biffo]

Most BIS releases I have bought recently have been downloaded from the eClassical website but I don't rule out buying BIS CDs entirely. I will just have to hope they don't get delivered on a wet day. My regular postman is very good but I do occasionally get a damp envelope from time to time.

[Omicron9]

Only time with tell...

Yerp.  That was just my experience. 

-09

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

Software CDs have been sent in cardboard packaging for ages and I cannot remember a single occasion of getting a disc that was damaged during shipment.

The ecopak simply sounds like a single-disc version of the cardboard clamshell packaging that has been the rule for bargain sets for many years. I welcome the demise of the repulsive "jewel-case" which was designed to take up a lot of space and make an expensive CD seem important.

[Brian]

Probably 30-40% of plastic jewel cases I order end up damaged. I've never had a digipak or ecopak arrive damaged but I have caused damage to them myself by pushing them against something sharp or banging the corners.

I am most concerned with ease of pulling the CD out of the fold. I see there is a little cut to pull out the booklet easily; hope the same is true for the CD. All of Alpha's reissue line from the past couple years comes in ecopaks, and although they are very space-saving and reasonably well-designed from a graphics POV, it's hard to pull stuff out when I'm driving. I do a lot of listening in the car...

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

There will be a rash of horrible crashes where the driver is found in the mangled wreckage with a BIS CD in his or her cold dead hand? Then the following ad campaign from Apple, "get it on iTunes, and live to hear it!"

[Brian]

There will be a rash of horrible crashes where the driver is found in the mangled wreckage with a BIS CD in his or her cold dead hand?

Nah, just me ... 

[Abuelo Igor]

What makes me shudder is the "eco-friendly glue". For some reason, I find that the concepts "CD" and "glue" do not go well together.