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Cat. no. SLV-034Pressings2026.10.056 min read

Sonopress EcoRecord: 15 PET LP Machines by 2029

Sonopress will run 15 EcoRecord machines by 2029. What these injection-moulded PET records are, how they sound and how to tell if you own one.

By ID · Published
Close-up of a bale of crushed plastic drink bottles at a recycling facility in San Jose, California
Photo: Grendelkhan / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sonopress, the Bertelsmann-owned disc manufacturer in Gütersloh, Germany, announced on 29 September 2026 that it will expand production of EcoRecord, its LP made from PET plastic instead of PVC, to 15 machines by 2029. The plan, published by Sonopress ahead of the Making Vinyl Europe conference in Haarlem and carried by Record of the Day the next day, adds ten machines to the five it will run by the end of 2026.

"In response to continuously growing demand, we plan to commission ten additional state-of-the-art injection-molding machines by 2029," said managing director Sven Deutschmann. EcoRecords are already on plenty of shelves: the first Liam Gallagher & John Squire album, Ed Sheeran's x anniversary edition and Coldplay's Moon Music all came out as EcoRecord editions. In a 2025 press release, Warner Music Group, which placed the first order, asked journalists to refer to them as "EcoRecords, records, or LPs – not as vinyl".

Five machines now, fifteen by 2029

Sonopress makes EcoRecords on three machines in Gütersloh and one in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here is the full plan, site by site:

SiteEcoRecord machinesWhen
Gütersloh, Germany3Running (third added end of March 2025)
Charlotte, North Carolina1Running since July 2025
Guadalajara, Mexico (Conectiv)1December 2026
Gütersloh, Germany2 moreFirst half of 2027
Not yet announced8 moreBy 2029
Total152029

Capacity has grown with each machine: up to two million PET LPs a year after the November 2024 addition, up to three million with the third in April 2025, plus about one million a year from Charlotte since July 2025. When Conectiv signed its exclusive agreement to buy and operate EcoRecord lines in May 2026, the capacity was expected in the third quarter of 2026.

What an EcoRecord is made of

An EcoRecord is a 12-inch LP whose base material is polyethylene terephthalate (PET) rather than the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) of a vinyl record. Sonopress says the PET can be virgin or 100% recycled. Coldplay chose recycled PET only: Warner says each 140g disc is made from nine recycled plastic bottles on average. For production in Charlotte, Indorama Ventures supplies a specialty PET resin chosen, according to Sonopress, for its clarity, mechanical strength and mouldability.

The environmental figure is Sonopress's own, and its wording has moved: "energy savings of up to 85%" in a 2023 test operation, then a reduction of "the environmental impact of the manufacturing process by up to 85 percent" from 2024, and only "significantly" in the September 2026 release.

Injection moulding versus the record press

At a conventional plant such as United Record Pressing in Nashville, PVC pellets are heated with steam into soft "biscuits", pressed between metal stampers, trimmed and left to cool, as WPLN saw on a factory tour. Steam is also where optimal media looked for savings: its lower-carbon eVinyl changed how the plant generates it.

The EcoRecord process uses neither steam nor natural gas. Molten PET is injected into a mould on a machine with up to 300 tons of contact pressure: the same injection moulding used for decades to make LaserDiscs, CDs and DVDs, according to Sonopress's first EcoRecord release. Everything upstream stays familiar: the EcoRecord price card of Gotta Groove Records, a Cleveland plant that has offered EcoRecords since August 2025, includes lacquers, plating, test pressings and real paper labels.

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How EcoRecords sound, according to the people who cut them

Geoff Pesche, who has cut Coldplay's lacquers for over 20 years and refined his cutting for the format with test cuts for Music of the Spheres, told Abbey Road Studios that EcoRecords "sound almost identical to the best conventional PVC black vinyl pressings". For Moon Music, he says, they tested different colours for surface noise before the band decided to go ahead, and he adds that injection moulding "gives a better stamper life, meaning less lacquer production". Gotta Groove's price card is more measured: "Sound quality is comparable to a GGR-pressed vinyl record."

An EcoRecord still starts life as a lacquer cut on a lathe; what changes is the plastic it ends up in and the machine that shapes it.

Reviewing for AnalogPlanet, Mark Smotroff found his translucent pink Moon Music "well-centered and remarkably quiet", free of the "crispy-harsh sonority" that sometimes comes with translucent colour pressings. He still wanted to hear an analogue-era reissue on EcoRecord before ruling out artefacts from the process: one modern pop record is a narrow test.

Which records are EcoRecords

ReleaseOutEcoRecord edition
Liam Gallagher & John Squire, Liam Gallagher John SquireMarch 2024Orange, Amazon and JB Hi-Fi exclusive: the first order
Ashnikko, Demidevil20 April 2024Pink, for Record Store Day
Ed Sheeran, x (10th anniversary)21 June 2024Translucent green
Coldplay, Moon Music4 October 2024140g recycled PET, first editions individually numbered
Coldplay, nine earlier albums15 August 2025Clear, 140g recycled PET
Junggigo, WonderlandDecember 2025Limited VIP edition, the first for South Korea

The 2025 reissues run from Parachutes to Music Of The Spheres, and the Moon Music Notebook Edition LP used 70% river plastic intercepted by The Ocean Cleanup in Guatemala, Rolling Stone reported.

How to tell if you own an EcoRecord

Looks won't settle it: Gotta Groove says the discs "look almost identical to a pressed vinyl record", and translucent colours exist on PVC too. Three checks work better:

  1. The hype sticker. On a Moon Music first edition, it reads "140g Translucent Pink EcoRecord" and "Injection-moulded LP made from 9 recycled plastic bottles", as transcribed on Discogs.
  2. The runout. Discogs entries for Moon Music and the 2025 Parachutes show "PET", the ♳ recycling symbol and an EcoRecord logo etched beside the matrix number. The rest of the dead wax is the subject of our guide to deadwax mastering credits.
  3. The format details. Discogs contributors list "PET" and "Injection Moulded" in the format field. A "Pressed By – Sonopress" credit alone is not proof: in 2023, Sonopress also returned to conventional vinyl pressing at its partner Media Industries' plant in France, mainly for BMG.

Frequently asked questions

01What is an EcoRecord?

An EcoRecord is an LP made by Sonopress from PET plastic instead of the PVC used for vinyl, formed by injection moulding rather than in a steam-heated record press. It can be made from virgin or recycled PET; Coldplay's 140g editions use about nine recycled plastic bottles each.

02Do EcoRecords sound as good as vinyl?

Abbey Road mastering engineer Geoff Pesche, who cut Coldplay's Moon Music, says EcoRecords sound almost identical to the best conventional PVC black vinyl pressings. AnalogPlanet's reviewer found his copy well centred and remarkably quiet.

03How can I tell if my record is an EcoRecord?

Check the hype sticker for the word EcoRecord, then the runout: Discogs entries for Coldplay's EcoRecords show PET, the PET recycling symbol and an EcoRecord logo etched beside the matrix number. A Sonopress pressing credit alone is not proof.

What it means for your shelves

Sonopress wants the new machines to bring EcoRecord "to even more artists, labels and music fans around the world", so if the plan holds, more PET editions are heading for the racks. On Discogs, Coldplay's EcoRecord editions have their own entries, down to the colour variants of Moon Music, so matching the exact release matters when you catalogue or price one.

In Sleevewise, scanning the barcode looks the record up in the Discogs database, and a copy's notes are the place to record that it is a PET EcoRecord, along with its colour and number. The vinyl collection app page shows how a catalogue entry works, and vinyl record value explains how prices come from current Discogs Marketplace listings. For another route away from virgin PVC, see Warner's recycled vinyl pilot.

Sources

ecorecordsonopresspet recordssustainabilitypressing plants
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