Robbie Williams' unsold 'Rudebox' CDs to be recycled for Chinese road projects

London, January 19 : British record label EMI has reportedly decided to ship unsold copies of Robbie Williams' album 'Rudebox' to China, so that they could be crushed and reused in street lighting and road projects. The 17-track CD is Williams' 10th solo album, which was released in 2006. It received a lukewarm response from UK fans, where only 500,000 copies could be sold.

EMI is now shipping unwanted CDs for recycling, said a source.

"EMI often ships out unwanted CDs to China so they can be recycled. It's the ultimate kick in the teeth for him. He loved this album, but going by all the unsold CDs he was obviously the only one," the Mirror quoted the source as saying.

"Now there's no better use for them than to be crushed up and trampled on," the source added.

EMI is said to have planned this recycling scheme to cut costs after losing 263 million pounds in 2007.

Meanwhile, the new boss at the record label has denied that Williams is on strike to protest their plan to axe 2,000 jobs.

"Robbie is still working in the studio, but he's working at a slower pace, which is appropriate to producing the best music he can, and that's something we at EMI support him in," he said.

ANI