the K-pop industry contributes to plastic pollution

In this article, I’m probably going to get my knuckles rapped by K-pop fans. But I thought it would be interesting to develop an aspect that may or may not be sufficiently addressed by K-pop fans, namely how the K-pop industry contributes to plastic pollution, by encouraging fans to buy more and more CDs.

According to Keele (a British university), the South Korean music industry produces around 500 grams of carbon emissions per record. Thanks to their elaborate marquetting prowess, K-pop labels continue to sell physical discs, despite competition from streaming platforms.

One of the causes of this waste of consumption is the multiple purchases of the same album with each new release, as “Selfies” or the famous “Photocards” are slipped inside. Photos of k-pop idols to collect.

Consumption beyond music

In the world of K-pop, record companies have developed sophisticated marketing strategies to stimulate album sales. Their main weapon: rewards that turn every purchase into a quasi-lottery experience. These incentives take a variety of forms, including limited-edition “photo-cards” of singers or vouchers giving access to personalized video calls with the artists.

Kim Na-Yeon’s testimony is a perfect illustration of this consumer phenomenon. Her shelves, progressively filled with CDs, have become the tangible reflection of a practice that goes beyond simple musical acquisition. Roza De Jong, another passionate fan, aptly describes this behavior: each album is truly a “lottery ticket”, where the attraction lies less in the musical content than in the possibility of discovering something rare or unique.

This system has worrying environmental consequences. In the streets of Seoul, it is now common to see piles of plastic albums piling up, often abandoned after fans have extracted the coveted photo or ticket. The multiplication of editions with different covers further amplifies this phenomenon of over-consumption.

Labels’ marketing strategies skilfully exploit fans’ desire to collect and their emotional attachment. Each album becomes an object of desire beyond its original function, transforming the act of purchase into an almost ritualistic experience for K-pop fans.

A marketing phenomenon with a growing environmental impact

The world of K-pop reveals a marketing system where the exploitation of fans’ emotions becomes a business model in its own right. A manipulative strategy, pure and simple, that exploits fans’ feelings towards their favorite artists.

The figures speak for themselves, and testify to the scale of the phenomenon. In 2023, over 115 million K-pop CDs were sold, crossing the symbolic 100 million mark for the first time. This spectacular growth represents an increase of 50% on the previous year, and all this in a context where music streaming now dominates consumer habits.

The Covid pandemic played a catalytic role in this dynamic. Experts point out that labels have strategically shifted their commercial efforts to physical sales to compensate for lost tour revenues, turning albums into a veritable source of economic survival.

HYBE, the managing agency of the BTS group, is trying to respond to environmental concerns. The company claims to be reducing the use of plastics and favoring more environmentally-friendly materials. However, the problem remains: CDs are still made from materials that are virtually non-recyclable, making the world of K-pop even more of a source of plastic pollution.

The carbon footprint generated by the production and disposal of these millions of albums is considerable. Each CD thus becomes the symbol of a form of consumption that goes far beyond simple music listening, to become an object of collection and an expression of identity.

This analysis highlights the tensions inherent in the contemporary music industry: between fan desire, aggressive marketing strategies and environmental responsibility. K-pop perfectly embodies this new economy of emotion, where attachment to artists is monetized through physical objects whose value exceeds the initial musical content.

K-pop’s environmental dilemma: Between fan passion and ecological impact

The production of K-pop CDs reveals a complex, multi-dimensional environmental problem. These music carriers, made from polycarbonate, require a highly specialized recycling process to prevent the release of toxic gases into the environment.

An environmental impact study by the UK’s Keele University provides some edifying figures. Each CD generates around 500 grams of carbon emissions. For a leading K-pop group such as BTS, Blackpink, this could represent the equivalent of the emissions produced by 74 flights around the Earth.

The South Korean government has been aware of this problem since 2003, introducing financial penalties to discourage the mass production of CDs. In 2023, labels were forced to pay nearly 2.0 billion won (over 246 million euros) in environmental fines, as confirmed by Yoon Hye-rin (윤혜린), deputy director at the Ministry of the Environment.

A major international event underlines the topicality of these issues: South Korea is currently hosting UN negotiations on a global treaty against plastic pollution, in Busan. This context highlights the growing importance of ecological issues.

Despite his criticism of the system, Kim Na-Yeon categorically refuses to call for a boycott of artists. His reasoning is clear: musicians are not responsible for labels’ marketing strategies. For each fan, the desire to support his or her artist takes precedence over any environmental considerations.

This situation illustrates the complex tension between cultural passion, business models and ecological responsibility. K-pop fans find themselves at the crossroads of these issues, torn between their love of music and a growing environmental conscience.