by Georgina Gamble ’29 on October 2, 2025
environment
Everyone’s favorite showgirl is on the verge of dropping her twelfth studio album—what does this mean for the environment?
The short answer: nothing good. During her last era, The Tortured Poets Department album, Taylor Swift managed to sell 36 vinyl and/or CD variants for an album that had only 31 songs. Each variation has its own special qualities: a new deluxe song, a collectible album sleeve, or a different black and white album cover. We’ve all seen the TikToks—the completely absurd Swiftie shrines, the crazy, over-the-top merch, and vinyl unboxings. I feel it is safe to say Swift officially has world domination in both pop culture and landfills.
It is important for me to say that I really do love Swift. Having the opportunity to see The Era’s Tour completely changed my life. Over the past few years, she has sparked a new meaning of girlhood for me and others across the world. As much as I love the glitter and screaming the bridges at the top of my lungs, I also have a lot of concern for the lack of sustainability at hand.
Vinyls and the plastics used to create them are bad for the environment as it is. This, combined with the frantic feeling of exclusivity and novelty that comes along with owning every part of Swift’s anthology, is a complete recipe for environmental disaster. The overconsumption of the Swiftie community is real, and the carbon footprint is high. How many Taylor Swift albums can (or should) a person really own? How much Swift can we (the planet) handle? It’s easy to say many (at least a good handful) of these collectibles will end up in landfills at some point. However, it is also worth mentioning that while sustainability is being lost to the well-earned frenzy, a sense of artistry is losing its way as well. A perfect album cover should encapsulate the energy and aesthetic of the songs all inside one photo. It should be the most accurate snapshot of the music, like you know what you’re about to listen to just by looking at the cover. If it takes an entire collection of photos to even try to capture the vibe, then what’s the point? More so, what’s the point in hurting the planet in the process? This idea has been most prevalent to me more recently as Swift has been releasing new vinyl variations for The Life of a Show Girl. From the standard orange and green to the “Shiny Bug” and “Tiny Bubbles in Champagne” editions, it feels as though Swift is trying to let the Swifites pick their own aesthetic for the era. This push for fans to make the album their own seems genuine, but at the same time, it feels like another play that will keep consumption at an all-time high and leave the environment in the trenches.