Music meets the great outdoors with Walmart’s new ‘green’ albums - they now contain a paper insert that, when planted correctly, will grow wildflowers. All albums from Universal Music Group (UMG) - including the new Sheryl Crow, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, and Counting Crows albums - will contain the inserts as part of Walmart’s “Earth Month” promotion.

Environmental Solutions for Shorewood Packaging came up with the idea to nix the plastic CD cases for sustainable and recycled cardboard packaging:

“All of the albums from Universal Music Enterprises (UMe), the U.S. catalog and special markets entity for UMG, will be offered in the new REPAK(R) CD package, an all paperboard option containing third-partycertified, renewable recycled board and recyclable paper. The REPAK’sdesign features a unique recessed cavity to hold the disc snugly and safelyin place, completely eliminating the need for a plastic hub or tray.

It is part of the greenchoice(TM) Environmental Solutions program from Shorewood Packaging, a business of International Paper. For the previously released compilation albums, the new packaging will replace the jewel box version of each title. Those albums (see list below) will also include the wildflower insert offering three free digital downloads from a select number of UMe catalog tracks.”

About 10 million CDs have been sold in the new sustainable packaging, which equates to a decrease of 2400 tons of CO2 emissions. This doesn’t include the reduction in transportation emissions, as the new sustainable packaging weighs a lot less that traditional jewel cases.

For those with thumbs a lesser shade of green, plantlife.org’s Adopt-a-Flower program might be more your speed. and find out how you can do your part to stop the decline of wildflower populations.

Tags: carbom emissions, Counting Crows, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, plant life, plantlife.org, Sheryl Crow, sustainable CDs, the great outdoors, UMG, Universal Music Group, Walmart, Walmart Earth Month, Walmart environment, Walmart Green Albums, Walmart green CDs, Walmart wildflowers

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Music, Renew. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.