diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a80dbfc69..09a8d46cd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ applications:
 
 * `PIPEWIRE_DEBUG=<level>`         to increase the debug level
 * `PIPEWIRE_LOG=<filename>`        to redirect log to filename
+* `PIPEWIRE_LOG_SYSTEMD=false`     to disable logging to systemd journal
 * `PIPEWIRE_LATENCY=<num/denom>`   to configure latency as a fraction. 10/1000
                                    configures a 10ms latency. Usually this is
 				   expressed as a fraction of the samplerate,
diff --git a/src/pipewire/pipewire.c b/src/pipewire/pipewire.c
index ad9a84182..d845fcdd7 100644
--- a/src/pipewire/pipewire.c
+++ b/src/pipewire/pipewire.c
@@ -441,9 +441,12 @@ void pw_init(int *argc, char **argv[])
 			pw_log_set(log);
 
 #ifdef HAVE_SYSTEMD
-		log = load_journal_logger(support);
-		if (log)
-			pw_log_set(log);
+		if ((str = getenv("PIPEWIRE_LOG_SYSTEMD")) == NULL ||
+				strcmp(str, "true") == 0 || atoi(str) != 0) {
+			log = load_journal_logger(support);
+			if (log)
+				pw_log_set(log);
+		}
 #endif
 	} else {
 		support->support[support->n_support++] =