How to Recycle Vinyl Records

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

Rate: (1 Ratings)

Now that all your music is on CD or MP3, you're probably wondering what to do with that old ABBA album. Recycling vinyl records is a great way to reuse plastic and get your home organized. When thinking about your record albums, don't forget about those album covers, which you can also recycle in traditional or non-traditional ways.

Flag Article

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Step1

Examine your collection. Make sure you don't have any rare and valuable records hiding amongst the dusty pile. It's easy to check what an album is worth with an appraisal at a local music store that buys used records, or through an online search.

Step2

Consider donating your leftover records to the Salvation Army, Goodwill or a local library.

Step3

Look into Freecycle, an online movement in recycling that allows people to post and swap goods for free. One man's unwanted Anne Murray album is another man's heaven in a cardboard sleeve.

Step4

Sell your old record albums. Ask local record stores if they buy back used LPs and CDs. If no stores in your area purchase used albums, there are stores online willing to check out your collection. Yard sales are great places to turn a profit on your formerly loved records as well.

Step5

Put on your crafting hat. Vinyl records are becoming hip again in a whole new way. Craft projects can take flat vinyl records and make them really cool pieces of useful art. With the projects available online, you can make a record bowl, coasters, a clock and more.

Step6

Find ideas for those old album covers. Album covers are easier to recycle than vinyl since most are cardboard, but you can also use them to store saw blades or create funky boxes and cool bags.

Tips & Warnings

Use some of your cooler albums for crafting. A Rolling Stones vinyl bowl is much more appealing than a Rodger Whittaker.
eBay can be a difficult place to sell albums unless you have a really rare collector's piece.