Billie Eilish has called out artists who release multiple versions of their albums in different packaging, saying the practice is environmentally harmful.
“Some of the biggest artists in the world [are] making f***ing 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more,” said the 22-year-old musician. “It’s so wasteful.”
Eilish has been one of the music industry’s most outspoken campaigners on sustainability issues for some time.
Last year, she helped launch and fund Reverb’s Music Decarbonization Project, which aims to eliminate carbon emissions created by the music industry.
Eilish’s recent Happier Than Ever tour served only plant-based meals to artists and crew, and she partially powered her headline set at Chicago’s Lollapalooza by setting up a temporary “solar farm” on the festival site.
Speaking to Billboard, Eilish said she’s particularly proud of using her influence to convince fashion house Oscar de la Renta to end their use of animal fur.
“The one that was seen by the most people was getting Oscar de la Renta to stop using fur when they made me a dress for the Met [Gala],” she said.
“That was really important to me. It’s tough as a person who loves fashion. I’ve tried to be a big advocate of no animal products in clothing and it’s hard. People really like classic things. I get it, I’m one of them. But what’s more important: things being original or our kids being able to live on the planet and them having kids?”
Eilish’s 2021 album Happier Than Ever was released in eight different vinyl varients, but the singer ensured they were made from 100% recycled black vinyl, plus recycled scraps for colored variants, and shrink-wrap made from sugar cane.
“We live in this day and age where, for some reason, it’s very important to some artists to make all sorts of different vinyl and packaging,” Eilish told the magazine.
“I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is. It is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try to involve everybody in my team in being sustainable — and then it’s some of the biggest artists in the world making f***ing 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more.
“It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money — and it’s all your favorite artists doing that s***.”
Eilish recently became the first artist in her lifetime to win both the Grammy for Song of the Year and the Oscar for Best Original Song in the same year.
