If you're not going to listen to the music on 'em, there are a few crafty people in Seattle that make bags/purses out of them.

One could also cut them in half or quarters and make  notebook covers out of them.  Or use them as placemats.

From the PVC-is-bad-for-your-health side of things:  really, unless you're physically humping the records, they're not going to do much damage to your health just sitting there and being listened to.  

Old LPs aren't doing any harm sitting on a shelf or spinning on your stereo. Keep them and enjoy them, and take good care of them so you won't have to throw them away. (Get a DiskSaver.) I have LPs you can't find on CD, and I love to listen to them. Am told there is even a resurgence of enthusiasm for LPs; people love the soft sound of the old recordings. YIKES! Does that mean that us Golden Oldies are undermining ecology? That companies are going back to marketing vinyl records? Say it ain't so, Joe!

Every time you play a record the diamond tipped stylus is grinding away in the groove creating...  PVC dust.

Playing the things sounds downright reckless... I did see a new record player that played with a <DrEvil>laser</DrEvil> replacing the regular stylus, but like Umbra says you then have to put up with heavy metal.

If music - real music, that is - means anything to you, then keep and use vinyl hi-fi recordings.  You will never get the quality sound, both high and low register in full range, from the computerized, compressed, digital things that pass for recordings nowadays.

Just when hi-fi was getting into three-dimensional reproduction of music, whether from orchestral or singular source, the urge to have our own private audio in our ear took over.  What a pity.  This generation will never know what real music is like, evidently preferring to drown out the world with noise instead.

Come on, isn't this a sign (even Umbra's answer) that we're so far from being healthy we don't even think about making our own music? As someone (George Carlin? Jerry Mander?) said, "Once you turn it off there are an infinite number of channels to choose from." Although we probably do it badly some places you can certainly find toxin-free violin-, guitar- and flute-manufacturing, and the off-gassing of singing along with your Rise Up Singing songbook is minimal and can be taken care of with a few Impeachmints. Look beyond. If you don't know the hands who made the product, boycott it.  

I must admit that J4zonian has a point.  Too often, we think of music as something to buy, not something we can make at home.  However, consider this: In these modern times, listening to recordings is a valuable way to learn new songs, and a source of inspiration for the budding musician.  (And let's face it, Rise Up Singing is very difficult to use if you haven't actually heard the songs.) From the standpoint of the working musician, it is advantageous to have a recorded sample of one's music, preferably on CD.  The recording technology, alas, is not particularly "clean".  Let's see what we can do to make it better!

As a recorder player (sopranino through bass) and percussionist, I have to agree with by J4zonian and Storm Dragon. There is nothing so wonderful as making your own music, in groups or by yourself. My recorders are made of wood (mostly sustainable, rosewood, pearwood, boxwood. Only one, a cranky little soprano, is made from ebony. My drums are of wood, goatskin, brass, and ceramic.

Just out of idle curiosity, what are CDs and DVDs made of? And for that matter, what are their jewelboxes made of? Vinyl? Something we don't even want to think about? What happens to all those CDs and jewelboxes once they go out of fashion and the little teenyboppette tosses them? Inquiring minds want to know.

Okay, now I had to create an account and reply to something.  :)

I don't see the environmental negative to a person buying and enjoying old LPs.  If anything it's BETTER for the environment, as that'll just decrease the number of LPs and old turntables that wind up in the landfills.

I would imagine that over the long term, the environmental impact of an LP lover would be drastically lower than that of somebody who listens to CDs or MP3s, even if that LP lover occasionally buys a new LP.  The hardware needed to play these is cheaply built and frequently replaced (iPods, computers, portable CD players, etc.).  Turntables are simple machines that are (by necessity) solidly built and can last for decades.  My 1976 Dual turntable works great...try finding a first generation iPod from 2002 that's still working.

CDs themselves are polycarbonate.  Most CD cases (at least the brittle clear ones) are polystyrene.  

so I'm doing this little radio piece on how phthlates are bad for kids, mkay, like how they're in kids toys, mkay, and I'm looking over at my Jimi Hendrix "Axis: Bold as Love" record and it's beautiful artwork all big and colorful, and the weight of the disk in my hand just feels like gravity man, ya know... and the crackle as the needle touches down on the outer groove just rights me... and so like once the music's playing, I'm having all kinds of vivid psychadellic and emotional experiences and reflections... the world and war and time and togetherness and melody and math and my mom and nature all collide in a massive lotus flower with a many-headed diety whispering the secrets of the universe directly into my mind...

where was I...(?)

oh... yeah... so like if I'm letting off PVC dust and I should trash my records for a recorder, flute, or maracas... y'all must be B-U-G-G-I-N because I know one thing, I AIN'T no and NEVER WILL BE no Jimi Hendrix... u dig?