K-pop fans take aim at CD, merch waste

SEOUL, South Korea — K-pop fan Kim Na-Yeon used to buy stacks of the same album when there was a new release, hoping to find one of the rare selfies of her favorite stars tucked between the plastic covers. Over the years, her burgeoning CD collection expanded to every inch of her shelves, prompting her to question its impact on the environment.

“That got me thinking about how much carbon must be emitted to produce or get rid of them,” Kim said.

Kim’s collection is part of a growing mountain of discarded CDs and merchandise waste that has swelled alongside K-pop’s global popularity. Made with polycarbonate, CDs can be recycled but only through a special treatment process that prevents toxic gases from being released into the environment. Along with the plastic packaging, producing a CD generates about 500 grams of carbon emissions, according to an environmental impact study by Britain’s Keele University. The weekly sales of a single top K-pop group could be “equivalent to the emissions from flying around the Earth 74 times,” said Kim.

The fan has joined a climate protection group called Kpop4Planet, which wants to hold the industry responsible for its impact on the environment. Started in 2020 by an Indonesian K-pop fan, the activist group has held protests outside the headquarters of music labels, urging them to stop “Plastic Album Sins.” The group has also collected signatures for petitions demanding a reduction in plastic production and other marketing schemes that fuel consumption as CD sales continue to rise significantly.