The struggles of the music industry fighting illegal downloader’s are well known. But enthusiasts have found a new way to swap songs. Nastasia Campanella reports.

Swapping CDs not only helps the environment but refreshes everyones CD collection. Image: Daisuke Murase

In a tiny pub in the middle of Melbourne’s Inner city, a group of people who have never met, gather.

They share stories, ideas and laugh between sipping on beer, breaking out into song and tapping their feet to the various beats playing in the background.

No, it is not a speed dating night.

Rather, this group of music aficionados have come together to engage in a little CD swapping.

Throwing out old or unwanted CDs could soon be a thing of the past with swapping events becoming increasingly popular in pubs around the nation.

“I was looking through my CD collection one day and found so many I wanted to chuck out,” said Leyla Acaroglu, director of Melbourne-based Eco Innovators.

“I wondered whether there was anyone out there that would want my CDs and the idea of a CD swapping event came up.”

With that, Acaroglu set up her first swap event and was happy when 25 people attended.

“It was such a lovely atmosphere with everyone sharing stories about where they purchased their CDs and of course, there were a few of us just wanting a night out with good beer and music.

“I don’t like the idea of CDs going into landfill and firmly believe that they are a produce which can be reused, reproduced and recycled appropriately,” she said.

Sydney soon followed Melbourne’s lead when a similar concept was established by Ying Hu. She runs Discback, a CD recycling company and firmly believes in the old adage that one persons trash is another persons treasure.

“With any consumerable item, I believe everyone should find a second use for it before recycling it because that would require more resources to recycle the material than to simply find another person to take your unwanted item.”

CDs are made of polycarbonates which contain a harmful substance known as phosgene monomer.

Hu said the substance is most dangerous during the production process.

“By recycling the discs, it would avoid a second production process as the plastic is already in a stable form.

“Recycling CDs is not hard to do and is very beneficial as the polycarbonate plastic will decompose under UV light, but if its buried in landfill, it won’t decompose for many years.”

ACrroding to Leah Mason, a research consultant at the Institute of Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney, data showing what goes into landfills is poorly understood.

“People can give estimates, but there is no exact answer for how many CDs go into landfill annually.”

Disagreeing with Hu, Mason said that in actuality, the materials used to manufacture CDs are not overly harmful on the environment, if you used in the right way.

“CDs are made of layers of plastic and metal and those materials can be used to make other produces, in other words, they won’t go to waste of landfill.”

Australia Plastics Reprocesses (APR) is one organisation in Sydney working to recycle CDs.

Brian Saurine, managing director of APR agrees the materials in the discs could be better used to reproduce other goods.

“The polcarbonates in CDs are the same materials used to manufacture products in the automotive industry – these are materials which should be reused affectively.”

Saurine said APR recycles about two to three million dollars worth of stock annually. Despite this estimation, there are those in the music industry who do not feel that CDs are having a detrimental effect on the environment.

Richard Letts is the executive director of the Music Council of Australia. He said he doesn’t see a problem with recycling or swapping.

“I think so long as at some point a purchase has been made, a royalty has been paid, there really isn’t a huge issue,” said Letts.

“I’m not sure other people in this industry would agree, but that is my opinion – I mean isn’t it just like lending a book to a friend?”

Mason said the music industry is very environmentally friendly.

“Music is one of the best examples of how technology has changed and effectively removed products in the environment.

“CDs no longer need cases, less fuels are being admitted through means of transport – digital downloads means less products are being produced on the earth unless of course, you count the electricity it takes to download.”

Ying Hu said recycling is not at the forefront of consumer thought.

“I conducted a survey at the start of 2010 and found people would recycle their discs if and when they knew where to do it,” she said.

“In Australia, there are a number of businesses who collect discs, but only a couple of companies here recycle CDs – Australia just doesn’t seem to have the infrastructure yet.”

Hu said until Australia is equipped to recycle CDs, the swapping events are a great idea.

“I’d encourage it – making friends, sharing stories and helping the environment – what’s wrong with that?”

Mason believes Australia needs to take on similar attitudes held by other countries.

“Japan has no landfill – they use all their old TVs and equipment to make new products,” she said.

“Here, we think just because we have the space to dump old, broken or unwanted waste, we should, but that just isn’t right.”